Legacy of Digita- An Epic Digimon Fantasy
by Greywolf
Summary: In an alternate universe, travel to the kingdom of Odaiba and join the unlikely heroes to learn the secret of the fabled Legacy of Digita. Adventure, suspense, romance, and so much more. Read the author's notes to play a little game while reading.
1. Amazon of the Winds

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. Don't sue.  
  
Author's Notes: Alright this is the first chapter of a long story. Violence and swearing in this chapter, just fyi. I'm testing you, my readers to see if you can spot all the scenes and lines that I borrowed from other movies and books for a bit of comic relief. In your reviews, name the scene/line and where it was from. By the way, ages in this story: Tai, Sora, and Matt are all 18; Davis, Kari, and TK are 14. That's all.  
  
  
Chapter 1- The Amazon of the Winds  
  
  
Somewhere, in the land of Odaiba, was a ruined fortress, and on this particular day, two young people were there. The noises of wooden swords clashing together rang out through the air. The first of these people was Lord Taichi Kamiya, one of the heirs to this kingdom. He wore his usual blue breeches and doublet, boots, and his trademark blue silk headband. He held a wooden longsword and was sparring with his squire, Daisuke Motomiya who held a wooden greatsword and wore an almost identical outfit to Tai's except with a black vest and a headband made of cloth instead of silk. Tai was trying to give the young knight-in-training some combat experience, and quite frankly, the brown-haired lord found it all too easy to beat the boy.  
  
"Easy Davis," Tai ordered as he blocked an incoming strike to the ribs. "You have to stay loose." With that, Davis raised his arms for a downward slash, only to have Tai's free hand grab his wrists and the young lord spun around and held the edge of his practice weapon to his squire's throat "See?"  
  
As practice resumed, Davis became more determined to beat his master.  
  
Tai simply laughed as he ducked a horizontal slash and came up holding the tip of his sword at Davis' stomach "Fighting with your heart is fine Davis, but be sure to use your head so your bravery doesn't become stupidity."  
  
Later, Tai casually munched on a small red apple as he effortlessly dodged and blocked Daisuke's slashes and stabs. "Hope you don't mind me having lunch," Taichi said between bites. "I don't have your energy."  
  
Davis backed off then charged at Tai as if to impale him.  
  
Taichi sighed and stepped aside, holding one foot out and tripped his brash squire, who fell face-first to the ground. "No one ever found victory in the dirt," Tai said casually.  
  
As Davis picked himself up, two white horses rode in. "Hello there," a young man's voice called out.  
  
"Hello Tai, Davis," the other rider said, this time a young girl.  
  
Tai laughed and went to greet the new arrivals "Hikari! Takeru!" The riders were his younger sister, Lady Hikari, and Lord Takeru Ishida, his sister's betrothed.  
  
Davis was beyong delighted to see Kari as she dismounted her horse. "Hello, Lady Hikari!" Davis had been taken with his master's sister since he first saw her, and constantly tried to prove himself to the father of the house of Kamiya that he was more fit to hold Kari's hand in marriage than Takeru, though with little success.  
  
Kari hugged her brother and both kissed each other on both cheeks once. She wore her favorite outfit of a scarlet skirt and buttoned-up shirt under red robes with sleeves that tapered into triangles covering the backs of her hands and fingers and extended six inches past her fingertips and always hung limp. Around her neck, she wore a small scrying mirror threaded on a leather thong.  
  
TK dismounted his horse and shook hands with Tai. He was wearing his usual green doublet, trousers, and buckskin boots, but had left his armor at home along with his green cape. He still carried his longsword over his back, his shortsword at his hip, and absolutely refused to leave behind his leather cap with neckguard.  
  
"How have you two been," Tai asked his sister and Takeru.  
  
"Tai, you saw us at breakfast not more than four hours ago, we're fine." Kari giggled at her brother who smirked in response.  
  
"I'm your older brother, let me be protective," he retorted. He turned to TK "How are you doing with your sword technique? I haven't seen you spar in a few months."  
  
TK smiled "I'm getting better. I've finally gotten the defensive spin right. It's not too hard once you get the hang of it."  
  
Davis, eager to endear himself to his master through flattery, chided in "I'm sure Taichi can do it great. There isn't a single weapon I've seen that he can't use. He's a master, a real knight-"  
  
Davis was cut short when a voice rang out from somewhere in the ruins "Yes, but can he dance?"  
  
TK and Tai laughed heartily as Kari giggled. Davis looked around confused "Who said that?"  
  
Taichi straightened up "I know that voice anywhere." He looked up on top of a moss-covered wall and saw a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes looking down at them. "Yamato, you old son of a dog," Tai shouted to his life-long friend. "What are you doing here?"  
  
Lord Yamato Ishida leaped into the air, doing a half-twist, and landed on the ground ten feet from the group "Just thought I'd stop by and say 'hello' to everyone." He wore a green doublet and dark brown breeches with a leather pauldron on his left shoulder. He had a mandolin slung over his back like a weapon and had a fancy rapier sheathed on his hip.  
  
Tai put a hand on Davis' shoulder. "Matt, I don't believe you've met my squire, Daisuke Motomiya. Davis, Lord Matt. Matt, Davis."  
  
Matt and Davis shook hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Davis said politely.  
  
"The pleasure's mine," Matt responded and looked back to Tai. "So he's training to become a knight? How's he doing?"  
  
The young Lord Kamiya sighed "We've got a long road ahead."  
  
Davis laughed uneasily and put his hand behind his head with a sweatdrop, knowing his master was right.  
  
Matt chuckled "Don't worry about it. Even a thousand mile journey begins with the first step. Of course, that doesn't take into account the weather, the condition of the road, obstacles..."  
  
"We get the point," Kari giggled.  
  
TK unloaded the saddlebags on his horse "Well, Kari and I brought some lunch, so how about the five of us eat here?" Takeru was wearing one of his usual optimistic grins. It was sometimes unsettling how difficult it was to shake the boy's composure.  
  
"Great idea," Matt cheered.  
  
For the next hour, friends and family sat around a wooden table Tai had dragged out to the ruins a few months ago for such occassions, eating and talking. Matt always had another joke or anecdote to tell at someone's request and everyone was enjoying themselves.  
  
Tai got up and took out a katana and greatsword, real ones of cold steel. "Davis, we have to resume practice. We're going to review the basic techniques."  
  
Everyone got up. Davis took the sword and got into a stance. Matt finished his wine and was about to leave with his brother and Kari.  
  
However, no one was able to leave as over two dozen men appeared from hiding places in the ruined fortress. They all looked scruffy and disreputable with cheaply made weapons.  
  
Tai scowled "Brigands!" Before he could draw his sword, one of the bandits came up behind him and put a knife to his throat.  
  
"Anyone move, and he dies," the man rasped.  
  
Everyone grudgingly stood stone still as the brigands advanced. Just as Tai was beginning to realize that these men obviously had no idea who they were attacking and tried to come up with a plan, an arrow flew from an unknown source, and struck the scruffy bandit threatening Taichi's life in the left eye, causing a small spray of gore.  
  
The man fell dead almost instantly. Taking advantage of the bandit's temporary surprise, Tai drew his katana in an upward slash, cutting open the belly and chest of a bearded man to his right, spilling his intestines on the ground. He brought the sword down into the neck of another bandit to his left, cutting the jugular and causing a spray of blood then turned the katana point-down in his hand, thrusting it backwards and thus impaling another assailant who tried to attack him from behind.  
  
Meanwhile, two brigands flanked Kari and TK, who had his swords drawn. "Back off or taste my steel," Takeru said in a serious voice, though it was apparent he was still keeping a level head.  
  
The two men with rusty swords went in simultaneously. TK parried an over-head strike from the man on his left with his longsword. The man on the right tried another over-head slash only to have his blade stoppped by TK's shortsword. The young boy swung the longer blade in and hit the second man's ribs and severely damaged his side. Takeru swung both blades simultaneously into the flank of the first man causing him to howl in pain. TK crossed his arms so that his longsword stabbed the second brigand through the heart and he swung both arms out to their respecive sides, striking both bringands in their heads. The last blow nearly cleaved open their skulls as they dropped dead.  
  
As TK, fought, Davis spotted one of thee brigands sneaking up on Kari as she was casting a spell. She was a powerful sorceress but needed time to cast her magic. Davis charged forward, throwing caution to the wind and slammed his shoulder into the bandit, knocking him over and making him lose his grip on his rusted mace. Davis quickly recovered and thrust his greatsword point down before the man could recover his senses. Daisuke's sword went straight through the downed assailant's chest and came out his back into the ground. His eyes wide with shock, the brigand let out a slow death rattle before he knew no more.  
  
Matt had his rapier out and nimbly managed to stab each attacker who came near him in the heart. They didn't have his experience in battle, but they still slowed Matt down form helping his friends. He cursed loudly as he ducked under another attacker's flail and slashed him through the chest, piercing his lung and heart.  
  
Kari finally finished her spell and sent several bolts of fire at the brigands, each one finding its mark. Two brigands were lucky and died quickly. Others howled in pain as the fire struck them then ignited their hair and clothing, leaving them to burn to death in magical flames.  
  
As all this transpired, several more mysterious arrows were fired, striking their targets flawlessly. It wasn't long before the ruins were littered with gored bodies and stained with blood.  
  
The last brigand tried to make an escape but Tai charged after him, his katana sheathed and ready for a draw slash. Taichi leaped high into the air, he pulled a half-twist at the peak of his jump and drew his sword, he slashed at the fleeing brigand who blindly ran towards him as he came down to earth. The slash amputated the man's left arm and a quick circle up and a diagonal cut later, Tai stood in a monkey stance (AN: That is a real martial arts stance) with his sword point to the ground as the unfortunate bandit's head rolled along the ground next to his body. With a grim scowl, Tai stood up straight and sheathed his sword three-quarters of the way before lifting the scabbard to meet the hilt of the katana with a click. "Dirty bastards," he growled as he surveyed the dead bodies. "At least our people are a little safer now."  
  
Everyone nodded in silent agreement and put away their weapons. All eyes looked around for the source of the mysterious arrow that had probably saved Tai's life.  
  
"Whoever fired those arrows," Tai called out into the ruins, "show yourself. I am in deep grattitude to you as are my friends and my sister."  
  
Stepping out from an empty doorway inside the fortress, a yellow-cloaked figure with bow and quiver in hand stepped out. The hood of the cloak was drawn up concealing the person's face. Seconds later, a small pink bird-like digimon about the size of an eagle, but with characteristics of both a raptor and a parrot, joined the cloaked figure.  
  
Tai bowed deeply in respect and appoached the mysterious archer. "I am in your debt. Thank you for your help. I am Lo-"  
  
The figure drew back their hood and interrupted Tai. "I know who you are, Lord Taichi Kamiya," she spoke, for the archer was in fact a young woman. She had eyes of the most unique shade of brown, almost red. She had shoulder-length red hair and, upon closer inspection, Tai realized that she was wearing men's trousers and a tunic, obviously tailored to fit her instead of who they were originally made for. She smiled brightly at Tai. "My name is Sora Takenouchi. And this is Biyomon," she said as she gestured to the bird digimon. "I am honored to meet you."  
  
Tai was surprised to see it was a girl who fired those arrows, since not many women in the kingdom had taken to a warior's life. However, he found this tom-boyish behavior to be...charming. Try as he might, the young lord couldn't take his eyes off the girl.  
  
Matt noticed this and walked up to his friend giving him a nudge in the ribs with his elbow. "Now there's a girl to take home to the folks, eh?"  
  
Tai felt his cheeks turn a little pink and he shot a quick glare at Matt before regaining his composure and facing Sora again. "Would you like to come with us? The houses of Kamiya and Ishida are holding an anniversary dinner tonight. I would be honored...correction, delighted to have you and Biyomon as our guests of honor."  
  
Sora smiled. "I accept your invitation, Lord Taichi. May I ask what the anniversary is for?"  
  
Matt spoke up, "The anniversary celebrates five years since the day that my brother Takeru and Lady Hikari were betrothed to unite the royal houses."  
  
As Matt said this, Davis quietly growled in jealousy.  
  
  
End of Chapter 1  
  
In Legacy of Digita Chapter 2- Scholars and Sincerity of Nature, the group meets Mimi, Palmon, Izzy, Tentomon, Yolei, and Hawkmon. Introductions are passed around and a grand feast is had. But what is the evil lurking in the shadows? 


	2. Scholars and Sincerity of Nature

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Author's Notes: Here's the second chapter of my story. In this chapter, Mimi is 18, Izzy is 17, and Yolei is 14. In the last chapter, I said I would test you guys to name that scene. Here's the answers for chapter 1: The opening scene with Tai and Davis sparring was borrowed from the opening scene of Dragon Heart. Matt's line "Yes, but can he dance?" was borrowed from an episode of Freakazoid!. There will be only one scene/line to identify in this chapter so watch for it. In your reviews, point it out, see if you can find the correct scene and origin. Anyway, on with the story.  
  
  
Chapter 2- Scholars and Sincerity of Nature  
  
  
Davis felt his jealousy rising as TK and Kari smiled to each other. It almost made him sick to his stomach when Takeru acted like a perfect gentleman and escorted his betrothed to her horse. A tap on the shoulder brought him to reality.  
  
"Davis," Tai asked. "Why are you staring at my sister and Takeru like that?" Tai knew the answer, but felt he needed to emberass his squire to teach him some manners.  
  
Daisuke turned pink and nervously laughed. "N-nothing. Jus-just thinking," he stammered. Davis turned and followed after Kari and TK to the edge of the ruins. Tai and Davis had tethered their horses at the broken down stables. When the young knight-in-training got there, he noticed a third white horse, most likely Matt's.  
  
Tai, Sora, Biyomon, and Matt came around the corner and untied their respective mounts, except Sora who had no horse. Tai looked down to her and extended his hand "I will offer you a ride, m'lady," he said politely with a smile.  
  
Sora looked at Biyomon, who nodded and took to the air. "I was going to fly their, but I admire your chivalry. Yes, I will ride with you." Sora told only half of the truth. She was flattered, but she wanted to get to know the brown-haired lord. Having met him, Sora believed that the stories she heard of his skill in battle and his charm did not do him justice. She took Tai's hand and he helped her onto the horse behind him. The amazon wrapped her arms around his waist to keep from falling off and supressed laughing when she saw the red in his cheeks.  
  
As the six young people rode off, Matt spoke up. "How about we take the scenic route through the forest? The trees are quite lovely this time of year." He was looking in Tai and Sora's direction in particular.  
  
Tai knew his best friend was teasing him again about the archer girl, but took the suggestion to heart and steered his horse toward the forest trail.  
  
TK looked to Kari "Matt's right. You should see the fern gullies. They're absolutely beautiful." TK liked to travel through the woodlands often. He never believed the local rumors of a magician girl living there as he had never seen any trace that such a thing might exist.  
  
The lush Odaiba Forest soon came into view. Everyone slowed their horses down as they entered so they could admire the scenery. Even Davis forgot about his jealousy for a while. The forest was like something out of a dream. The trees stood tall and impressive, with leaves of the most beautiful shades of green. Everywhere, birds of all kinds sang their songs and flitted through the branches, a sight that especailly captivated Biyomon, who was flying a little closer to the ground now. Flowers grew all over the ground in every brilliant color an artist could ever dream. A stream ran by with crystal clear water and small fish leaping out of the current to catch the tiny gnats that got too close to the surface. Kari spotted one of the fern gullies that TK had mentioned and her eyes lit up at the lush emerald green color, the thin mist at the ground, and the tiny mammals and amphibians that moved around in the leaves of the ferns. "Takeru, you were right," she said dreamily. "This place is gorgeous."  
  
Sora held onto Tai and gazed at the scene before her. A small fox darted across the path and disappeared into a clump of bushes. She smiled at the small predator as he passed then made a few unusual chirping noises. Several birds descended from the trees and landed on her shoulders.  
  
Tai looked back at Sora and smiled. The birds chirped and cooed as she did the same, as if they were talking. Taichi found himself drawn to this girl. She had everything he imagined the perfect woman to have: beauty, strength, brains, spirit. Perhaps...  
  
Everyone's awe and happiness came to an abrupt stop as a bolt of ebony wood landed sharply wih a thud in the path before them like an arrow. The horses were spooked, but everyone managed to calm their mounts and looked around to see who made that shot.  
  
Out from bushes stepped a plant-like digimon. It stood on two feet with big clawed hands, small fangs, large purple eyes, and a giant pink flower on its head like a crown. Then, out stepped a young girl about eighteen years old. She was about Sora's height and had long brown hair with many pink flowers woven into it and brown eyes. She wore flowing pink robes with a vest of a darker pink that had a myriad of pockets and sandals on her feet. In her hand, she carried a staff that seemed to be crafted of two vines woven into a spiral together with a flower crown similar to the plant digimon's. "Who are you," she said. It was less of a question and more of a demand.  
  
Matt hopped off his mount and approached the girl who readied her staff. To her surprise, the blonde lord bowed deeply to her "I am Lord Yamato Ishida, passing through the forest with friends and family. May we ask who you are?" He looked her right in the eye, but with friendship instead of malice.  
  
The girl took a step back nervously before clearing her throat. "I am Mimi Tachikawa and this is Palmon," she said gesturing to the digimon who nodded hello. "We are the guardians of this forest."  
  
Biyomon floated to the ground. "We didn't mean any harm," she said in full honesty. "We were only passing through."  
  
Takeru suddenly realized who they were speaking with. "You must be the rumored magician girl. I've been coming here for years and never seen you before."  
  
Mimi looked at TK. "Yes, I remember you. I leave you alone because you respect these woods. And I expect you have never seen me as I am only seen when I want to be. I was a little worried about seeing so many people at once coming through my forest."  
  
Yamato spoke this time "I can assure you we only wanted to admire your forest. Please, do not bare us any ill will." He took Mimi's hand much to her surprise and kissed it. "Would you like to join us for dinner? We must show our grattitude to you for protecting one of our kingdom's greatest marks of beauty." He then gave her one of his warmest smiles.  
  
Mimi looked dumbfounded as she stared into Matt's blue eyes. The girl couldn't find her voice so she simply nodded.  
  
Palmon looked from Matt to Mimi "I think he likes you," she said teasingly.  
  
Mimi turned the same shade of pink as her robes and looked away. "I'll go with you. After all, it is very rude to turn down someone's grattitude."  
  
Mimi shared a horse with Matt, gaining more teasing from Palmon, and the group made their way through the woods. Since this was a longer route to the castle, and they were moving slowly to enjoy the landscape, they didn't make it to the gates until dusk. The gates opened for them and they rode into the sanctified walls of the palace.  
  
Immediately, five digimon rushed over to greet their respective partners. Veemon tackled Davis, sending him flat on his back. Padamon and Gatomon leaped into TK and Kari's arms respectively. Tai and Augumon shared a friendly bear hug while Matt and Gabumon began wrestling, holding one another in headlocks and laughing.  
  
"What took you guys so long," Gatomon asked. All the digimon had been wondering where everyone had went to.  
  
"Hey Tai," Augumon asked his counterpart, "who's your friend?" He pointed to Sora and then turned his attention to Biyomon.  
  
"This is Sora Takenouchi and Biyomon. They're here as guests of honor for the anniversary."  
  
"Great," the little reptillian digimon exclaimed in happiness.  
  
Just then, the servants came in and dragged off the humans to get them cleaned up and dressed for the dinner.  
  
*************************  
  
Soon, the royal familes, various guests, and the digimon were seated in the grand dining hall. The banquet was full of delicious food. There were dozens of roast fowl birds (which Biyomon didn't want to touch), plates of juicy venison steaks, large tureens of all kinds of soup, steaming plates of mutton, enormous baskets of fruit, and hundreds of pitchers with half a dozen different kinds of wine and spirits. Davis was seated on Tai's left, jealously watching TK and Kari at the other end of the table. Sora sat next to Tai and the two of them discussed battle tactics and strategies. Mimi was between Sora and Matt, who told her a multitude of jokes and anecdotes and even sang her a few songs. TK and Kari were whispering to one another closely so that their faint voices would carry far enough over the noise of dinner. The digimon sat on the opposite side of the table facing their counterparts and engaging in similar activities. Many of the guests thought the scene with humans and digimon together and talking was adorable, and one artist present even made a charcoal sketch so he could later paint the scene.  
  
Lord Kamiya and Ishida rose from their seats and help up goblets of wine. "Attention please," they shouted in unison and the room fell silent.  
  
Lord Ishida began. "I welcome you all, friends, family, and our new guests with oustretched arms."  
  
Lord Kamiya then spoke. "It is a great honor for us to be here with all of you. And now, a toast. To family."  
  
"To friends," continued Lord Ishida.  
  
"And to our children. My daughter Hikari..."  
  
"And my son Takeru."  
  
"May peace and love be with you both, to all of us, and our people," the two rulers said as one.  
  
The hall erupted in cheers and shouts of approval as everyone drained their glasses and goblets.  
  
"In other news," Lord Kamiya continued, "our kingdom will be holding a very special celebration soon. In two weeks, we will be celebrating the five hundredth anniverary of Odaiba's soveriegnty!"  
  
Again, the feast hall exploded in cheers, applause, and shouts.  
  
Lady Ishida stood up. "We have made arrangements for grand entertainments from across the lands outside our borders. Everyone, from the nobles to the peasants, is invited to take a day off of work to join in the festivities. We will even be hosting a masquerade ball here at the palace open to any guest or citizen who wishes to attend."  
  
The tables soon broke out in joyous cheers of "Long live Odaiba!" Tai, Matt, TK, Kari, and their digimon were applauding furiously and it wasn't long before Sora, Mimi, Davis, Veemon, Biyomon, and Palmon joined in.  
  
The eating, drinking, and merry-making continued till midnight and everyone was tired and their voices hoarse. The servants escorted everyone to their rooms for the evening and peace resumed over the night.  
  
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The next day, two ponies walked up towards the gate to the royal palace. In tow, was an insect-like digimon and a bird-like digimon. "Hail," shouted one the riders, a young man with dark red hair. "My friends and I are travelling scholars! We request an audience with the children of the ruling houses!"  
  
The captain of the guards looked down apprehensively. "I don't know if we can trust them."  
  
"Let them in," came Matt's voice from behind the chain mail-clad officer.  
  
He spun around. "But Lord Yamato..."  
  
Matt just crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Let them in. And summon my brother, Lord Taichi, and Lady Hikari," he said flatly. "Now," he added in a more stern tone.  
  
The captain sighed in defeat and bowed. "Yes, my lord." He turned to his men. "You heard Lord Yamato! Open the gates and summon Lord Taichi, Lord Takeru, and Lady Hikari! Get going," he barked.  
  
In five minutes, the riders were escorted to a pavillion in the palace gardens while their ponies were take to the royal stables, though the two humans insisted on carrying the large packs they had their mounts carrying with them. There were many tall and beautiful flowers growing around the pavilion as well as several cherry blossom trees. In the center of the pavilion was a fountain with a granite statue of Greymon and Garurumon and around the edges of crushed shale circle were a number of stone benches. The two visitors sat quietly with their digimon by the fountain. The boy had red hair, as mentioned before, that was always spiky and stubborn. He wore rusted red robes typical of scholars and his digimon, perpetually flying, looked like a large ladybug with big green eyes. The girl with him wore a plain white skirt and button-up shirt with sandals. She had lond purple hair and large spectacles over her eyes. Around her neck she wore a necklace with turquoise beads and bird feathers. Her digimon resembled an eagle with a red headband with one it his own feathers fastened to the back standing straight up.  
  
The four visitors didn't have long to wait before Tai, Matt, TK, and Kari came walking toward the pavilion. "Greetings travellers," Tai said respectfully. "You said you wanted to speak with us?"  
  
The red haired boy stood up. "Yes, but first we should introduce ourselves. My name is Koushiro Izumi, or Izzy if you prefer." He then gestured to his digimon. "This is Tentomon, my bonded digimon."  
  
"Hello," Tentomon said cheerfully.  
  
Izzy continued the introductions as he waved to the purple-haired girl. "This is Miyako Inoue, also known as Yolei, and her digimon, Hawkmon."  
  
"Pleasure to meet you," Yolei and Hawkmon greeted in unison.  
  
"We are scholars," Izzy explained. "I'm sure you are all aware that very few people in the world have digivices and bonded digimon."  
  
"That's right," nodded Takeru.  
  
"Well, the four of us are writing a definitive study on digimon and you are the largest group of people in one place that have digimon. With your permission, Lords and Lady, we would like to do our research here for a while. Will you consider?"  
  
Izzy, Tentomon, Yolei, and Hawkmon waited eagerly as Matt and Tai seemed to have a silent conversation. The young lords soon smiled and nodded to each other. "Absolutely," Tai smiled. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like."  
  
"Consider our home, your home," Matt added.  
  
Yolei and Hawkmon cheered ecstatically as Tentomon and Izzy started shaking hands/claws with Matt and Tai. "Thank you so much. We greatly appreciate this," Izzy said with an uncharacteristic burst of energy. "May we please see your digimon?"  
  
"Of course," said Kari. "We can all talk out here in the gardens." Kari picked up the mirror around her neck and began moving her lips, though no sound came out. The mirror's surface became a swirling pool of mercury for a minute before Kari stopped her silent incantations and the tiny magic device returned to normal. "Gatomon should be bringing the other digimon along with Sora and Mimi shortly." At this point she gave an exasperated sigh. "And Davis, too."  
  
*********************  
  
Unknown to any of the young people or they're digimon, a dark presence was watching them from afar. "Yes...Everything is falling into place...Soon...Their souls will be mine." There was a long, still pause before the dark voice spoke again, this time slightly irritated. "Dammit, I can never think anything clever to say."  
  
  
End of Chapter 2  
  
In Chapter 3- Orphans and Panacea our heroes meet Joe and Gomamon, expert healers, and find an orphaned boy named Cody trying to find his niche in life. As our friends get more acquainted, the kingdom's anniversary is celebrated, but will the happiness last when an evil force arrives to crash the party? Keep reading to find out. 


	3. Orphans and Panacea

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Author's Notes: Third Chapter! Huzzah! Could anyone find the hidden line in the last chapter? Here it is: The final scene with the dark presence watching our heroes and not thinking of a witty thing to say was borrowed from an online comic called RPG World. Want the URL? Here: http://rpgworld.keenspace.com Anyway, ages in this chapter; Joe is 20, and Cody is 11. This chapter is going to be cheerful one minute, unbelievably sappy the next, then suspenseful. Enjoy.  
  
  
Chapter 3- Orphans and Panacea  
  
  
The morning was quiet and serene. Everyone was still asleep, minutes before the servants would come in and get them prepared for the day. Tai lay on his royal blue four-posted bed with the curtains opened. He was mumbling in his sleep, totally unintelligible. A few feet from his bed lay Augumon on a bed of gold coins like a dragon's hoard. Since there was always a chance he might breathe out a few sparks in his sleep, the family coudn't chance him igniting regular bedding material. Those two were always the last to get up, but were always wide awake seconds after sitting up. Tai yawned loudly and stretched out just as a servant with long green hair stepped in. "My lord Taichi, I have drawn you and Augumon your baths and a change of clothes is ready for you," he said, bowing respectfully.  
  
"Thank you, Cray," Tai addressed the green-haired servant. He got out of bed wearing only a pair of dark blue braies and popped his neck a few times. "I'll awaken Augumon. You're dismissed. We'll just call if we need you."  
  
Cray smiled and bowed. "Thank you, my lord." With that, he turned and walked down the hall. Cray had been one of Tai's three personal servants since childhood and the young lord regarded the green-haired man as an uncle instead of a butler.  
  
Tai nudged Augumon. "Come on. Wake up."  
  
Augumon stirred but didn't get off his bed of coins.  
  
Tai smirked. He had an idea, though it was only a wild shot. "Hey Augumon? Biyomon wants to see you," he said slowly. Tai had noticed last night how the two digimon had been staying fairly close and talking animatedly for most of the evening. It was incredibly cute to watch, as Lady Kamiya never tired of reminding everyone. She hadn't been that excited since she saw Gatomon and Patamon in a similar scenario.  
  
The orange lizard digimon sprang up with a start. "Where," he asked excitedly. When he saw Tai laughing he frowned. "Very funny." Augumon put his clawed hands on his hips and puffed and indignant cloud of smoke towards the cieling.  
  
Tai regained his composure and straightened up. "I'm sorry. But we need to get ready. Come on."  
  
Still grumbling, Augumon followed Tai down the hall to the bath room. As Cray promised, two hot baths were ready. Tai took off his braies and stepped into the water, taking a minute to relax. Augumon climbed into his digimon-sized bath and stared at the ceiling. The two friends sat in silence for a moment before an evil smirk crossed Augumon's face. Tai was now staring out the window, oblivious to reality and Augumon turned to the door. "Oh, hello Sora!"  
  
Tai jumped and looked toward the door, his face beat red. When he saw no one their and turned to see Augumon choking back laughter, he scowled. The scowl quickly became a smile though and Tai soon started laughing heartily with his counterpart. "I suppose I deserved that."  
  
"Yeah. We know each other too well, though," Augumon responded, wiping a tear from his cheek.  
  
"So there is something between you and Biyomon," Tai smirked.  
  
"Like you and Sora are any better," Augumon retorted. "You just fall all over a girl with brown eyes."  
  
"Aha! Her eyes are red," Tai shot back haughtily.  
  
"Aha! Thank you for proving my point," Augumon exclaimed.  
  
************************  
  
A half-hour later, Tai and Augumon joined everyone at breakfast. The meal went by rather uneventfully until the guards burst in dragging a tall blue-haired boy and a short young boy with brown hair and green eyes by chains. The blue-haired boy wore a blue tunic with black trousers and shoes with spectacles over his eyes and had a white tabard over all of it with a blue medical cross emlbazened on the front and a similar cross which everyone knew represented reliability on the back. The younger boy wore sandals, wide-legged white pants, and a powder blue gi. The young boy was glaring at a guard on his left who held a wakizashi in its scabbard.  
  
"My lords," piped one of the men. He was Eckrin, one of the land owners. He had only been around a short while but no one in the royal houses liked him as he was very cold and uncaring. "We found these two foreigners going through my land. The small one carries a weapon, which I absolutely forbid on my territory, and the other claims to be a healer, though I think he has other intentions. Foreign scum are never what they seem."  
  
Through all of this, everyone at the table was shocked, but Tai was seething. He stood up so quickly that he knocked his chair over. "How dare you," the young lord shouted. "How dare you make such foul accusations against anyone!"  
  
Eckrin was surprised by Taichi's outburst along with everyone else but kept a level head. "But my lord, you know that we can't trust forgeigners. They always harbor ideas of coup and rebellion."  
  
This time, Sora lost her temper. She stood beside Tai and shrieked at Eckrin. "You bastard!" Every head in the room snapped towards Sora. "I am not of this land! I am foreign to Odaiba! Don't you dare insult my honor!" She was going red in the face from yelling. Before Tai could speak to her, Sora jumped over the table, stormed over to Eckrin and to everyone's shock, slapped him so hard that he was sent staggering. The amazon was positively furious at the insults to her integrity and honor.  
  
Eckrin sneered as he regained his orientation. "You little harlot," he shouted indignantly. "I'll have you thrown in chains for that!" With that threat, he slapped Sora right back.  
  
Matt was about to open his mouth to speak when Tai jumped over the table as Sora did, but instead of slapping the cruel land owner, Tai surprised everyone, even Sora. He punched Eckrin in the stomach, pulled him into an arm lock, then threw him several feet after popping his arm out of the socket. As Tai walked over to the beaten land owner, his fists were visibly trembling with rage. "Don't ever do that again," Tai said in his most dangerous voice.  
  
Sora was hurt by Eckrin's insults and was livid when he struck her, but was quickly growing afraid of Tai's anger. The guards holding the two boys were as pale as sheets.  
  
Tai calmed himself a little with a few deep breaths. "I am revoking your privelages as a land-owner. You may keep what property you have bought with your own money, but I will hand the rights of the land over to someone with empathy and competence. Now get out of my sight, you heartless bastard." Tai was glaring death at the cowering Eckrin and his voice was like ice.  
  
Eckrin wanted to say "Yes, sir," but only managed a feeble squeek and scurried out of the room.  
  
Tai turned to the guards. "Release those two," he said and gestured toward the two stunned prisoners. "And return their possessions to them."  
  
The guards did as they were told and faced a still stern-faced Tai. "I will not fault you for Eckrin's stupidity," he told them. "Dismissed."  
  
The guards hurried off breathing sighs of relief. They soon rounded a corner and disappeared from view and Tai's icy glare.  
  
There was a long silence before Lady Kamiya spoke up. "Son?"  
  
Tai took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled. "I'm alright."  
  
Matt clapped loudly. "Bravo, Tai," he shouted. "Stunning performance!"  
  
Davis joined Matt in giving Tai a standing ovation as Takeru and Hikari just sat still as statues staring at Tai in disbelief. None of them had seen that side to him before.  
  
Sora walked up to Tai and placed a hand on his forehead. He let his fingers hover only millimeters above the red hand mark on her face almost guiltily. "Thank you," the amazon told him, "for defending those two and me." She stood on tip-toes and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, which sent a jolt through Tai's body.  
  
Lady Kamiya went from stunned silence to absolute euphoria at the sight before her. She rushed up to her son and Sora and hugged both of them. "Oh that is so sweet," she shrilled. "When are you two getting married? I had no idea you had gotten along so well so quickly! Oh this is wonderful!"  
  
"Mother," protested Tai, blushing furiously along with Sora. "We're not getting married." 'Why was I reluctant to say that? Could it be possible,' he thought. "It was just a kiss on the cheek." 'Just? Then why did it feel so... good,' he silently wondered.  
  
Augumon was still at the digimon table sitting next to Biyomon and laughing hysterically. "I knew it! I knew it," he shouted between gasps for air.  
  
"What's so funny," Gabumon asked, his voice dripping with curiosity.  
  
Augumon explained the early morning events, except about Tai's teasing him about Biyomon, and soon had the whole table of digimon roaring with laughter.  
  
TK recovered from his shock and went over to the two new guests. "I'm sorry about that. We've been looking for a reason to get rid of Eckrin for a while."  
  
"It's alright," said the blue-haired healer. "Um... could you help us with these chains?"  
  
"Certainly." Takeru picked up the keys Eckrin dropped during his beating and unlocked the manacles. "There. Again, I apologize for this inconvenience. I am Lord Takeru Ishida. And you two?"  
  
"My name is Jyou Kido, some just call me Joe," said the blue-haired boy. "I was telling the truth when I said I was a healer. I'm a professional surgeon and well trained in poison antidotes."  
  
The brown-haired boy bowed deeply. "I am Iori Hida, also known as Cody." He had an odd whispery tone to his voice, as if he was trying not to be heard. "I was only passing through these lands when that Eckrin arrested me for carrying my sword."  
  
TK sighed. "For a third time, I am truly sorry. We should have just kicked Eckrin from the land a long time ago."  
  
Joe raised a tentative hand. "Could you do us a favor? We both have digivices and digimon, but they were confiscated when we were arrested. Could you please return them to us?"  
  
Izzy was at their side in a flash. "Digivices, you say? And bonded digimon?"  
  
Joe had a samll sweatdrop. "Uh...yes."  
  
Yolei put a hand on Izzy's shoulder and dragged him back to the table. "Finish your food and give those two some time to get over their ordeal before we drown them in questions."  
  
************************  
  
Out in the palace gardens, Tai was helping Sora with her melee skills. He was teaching her how to use an axe since it could also be thrown, a style she was already skilled with. "Widen your stance," he corrected her. Tai stood behind her and took her hand holding the weapon in his. "Now, up. Down. Up. Down," he said, guiding her through the motions. "One. Fluid. Stroke." He stepped away and looked into her eyes.  
  
Sora, trying to hide her fluttering heartbeat simply stated "This could cleave a man's skull."  
  
Tai took the axe from her hand and hurled it off in one direction where it embedded itself in a wooden bench. "Like a pudding," he smirked. He could feel his heart begin to slowly melt as the amazon smiled back at him.  
  
Sora felt that each day, each moment, she was growing closer to Taichi. Remembering how he had defended her this morning, her heart skipped several beats.  
  
Meanwhile, up on one of several balconies that over-looked the gardens, Takeru and Hikari watched the two of them. TK had a very amused smirk on his lips, while Kari was wearing a dreamy expression over her face. "Aren't they just so lovely together," she asked.  
  
"Yes," the blonde-haired lord said, taking his betrothed's hand. "But not as much so as us."  
  
Kari felt her cheeks redden. For the past several months, the sorceress noticed, TK was always acting very chivalrous and sometimes romantic. She turned to face him with an emberassed grin.  
  
"Lord Takeru! Where is that boy!" A female servant could be heard shouting and storming around. She obviously was in a rather disgruntled mood.  
  
"I guess I have to go," TK said reluctantly. He let go of Kari's hand and gave her a kiss on her forehead before turning and walking in the direction the bellowing came from.  
  
Kari stood still. That kiss had sent a surge through her body greater than any lightning bolt. The sorceress just stood there, savoring the moment. She could have stood there all day if Davis hadn't picked that time to show up.  
  
He smiled and walked over to her, trying to look charismatic, though unsuccessfully. "Hello there, Kari," he said leaning on the railing.  
  
"Mm-hmm." Lady Hikari just continued staring off into space with her face red.  
  
Daisuke's smile vanished. He snapped his fingers in front of the girl's face, but she didn't even blink.  
  
"Hello?" The young squire was beginning to get a little worried now.  
  
"Yes TK," she said dreamily.  
  
Davis immediately scowled. "It's me! Davis! Your brother's squire?!"  
  
Kari came out of her trance though still blushing. "Oh, I'm sorry." Her voice was still distant. She touched the spot where her betrothed had kissed her and giggled.  
  
Davis sweatdropped as he stared at her. "Are you sick, or something?"  
  
The sorceress just let out a lovestrrck sigh. "TK kissed me," she said, once again oblivious to reality.  
  
"What?!" Daisuke was now seeing red. "That does it," he shouted indignantly. "Where did he go, its time we settled this!"  
  
Tai and Sora looked up to where Davis was shouting. "Oh fantastic," Taichi groaned. "I know that tone of voice. He's about to do something emberrassing and stupid." Tai sighed then looked up at Sora. "Well he needs to learn the hard way. Want to go watch?"  
  
"Sure," Sora shrugged.  
  
Tai offered his arm and was surprised when the girl accepted it. The brown-haired knight looked up seeing his sister come out of her euphoric trance as Davis stormed off. "I'm guessing he's after TK. Kari only gets that look for one person."  
  
The two of them walked arm-in-arm back into the palace. As Cray walked by, Tai asked where Lord Takeru was and the butler informed him that Lord and Lady Ishida had called for him to meet them in the atrium. (AN: Yes, I know the atrium is Roman, but I thought it would be cool to mix a few existing world cultures in this story. Don't like it? Bite me) "This should be interesting," Tai frowned.  
  
*************************  
  
Tai and Sora entered the atrium as Lord and Lady Ishida were nervously trying to give their youngest son 'The Talk' and so far had only managed to stammer out a few incomplete sentences. Sora went into a fit of giggling, though tried to hide it so she didn't interrupt them. TK was looking rather confused by his parents' incoherent babbling and wondered just what had them so unnerved.  
  
Davis burst into the room, positively fuming. "There you are," he yelled at Takeru.  
  
"Oh, hello Daisuke," TK said, relieved at a distraction from his parents. At this point, Kari ran in out of breath from trying to keep up with Davis. The blonde boy smiled and enthusiastically greeted Hikari. "Hello Hikari. What are you two doing here?"  
  
Davis caught his breath and stood up straight. "I challenge yout to a duel for Lady Hikari!" His voice was dripping with anger, and his eyes almost seemed to glow red.  
  
There was a silence in the air for a few moments. You could hear a pin drop in the stillness. Then, everyone except Davis burst out into hysterical laughter. Tai was leaning against the wall with one hand on his forehead and the other on his stomach while Sora put her arms around his neck and leaned against him to keep from falling over. Lord and Lady Ishida were holding onto each other with tears of laughter going down their faces. TK was staggering, unable to keep his footing steady, while Kari was on her knees, slapping one hand on the floor. Tai opened his eyes and saw Davis visibly shaking with rage. He stopped laughing immediately. "Wait a second he's serious." Abruptly, the laughter ceased as quickly as it came. There was silence once again, though this time it was a very tense stillness. No one even breathed for a few seconds.  
  
Finally, TK scowled. "Daisuke Motomiya, I am not going to fight you," TK said. His composure remained totally unfazed, but his voice was dead serious. "I will not fight you for two reasons. First of all, because this is incredibly stupid. Lady Hikari is not some prize to be won. Second, you know I will win." There was no boasting behind the blonde lord's words. He spoke almost tonelessly, though his blue eyes were warning the brash Daisuke to back down.  
  
Davis growled. "You'll fight me or I'll just kill you where you stand!"  
  
"Davis!" Tai stormed over to his squire and slapped him smartly across the face (AN: There seems to be a lot of that in this chapter.). "Have I taught you nothing?!" Tai was now fuming. "A knight never murders in cold blood! He fights the wicked and those who threaten his kingdom and people!" Taichi balled his hands into fists until his knuckles were white.  
  
"Tai," TK spoke up. All heads in the room turned to the young lord. "With your permission, I think I will fight and defeat Davis and teach him that violence isn't always the answer to a problem. It will also show him that there is always someone better."  
  
Taichi stood still for a moment, considering the situation. "So be it. In one hour, you two will face each other in the courtyard. There is to be no killing!" Tai added a strict tone to his voice to make sure the last sentence was made clear.  
  
Both boys nodded and glared at each other. This was guaranteed to be most interesting, as Tai had thought.  
  
*************************  
  
One hour later, half the castle arrived in the courtyard to witness the duel. When Kari had heard her brother declare they would fight, she felt her stomach turn a few flips. Her mother assured her that Takeru was an experienced fighter and could win this duel.  
  
The consolation didn't ease the tension, though. As Cray drew the circle the combatants would enter in chalk, the anxiety in the air became almost tangible. Joe stood just outside the circle with Gomamon, ready to treat any wounds Takeru or Daisuke had once the duel was over. Kari stood next to them, nervously wringing her hands. Her brother had made it clear there was to be no killings, but this was a situation where so much could go wrong.  
  
Tai looked down at his little sister. He too wished this didn't have to happen. Takeru was already beginning to feel like family to him and he already had begun treating the young lord as a baby brother instead of a friend. But Davis was the same. The brash squire looked up to Taichi like a father figure and the knight was beginning to grow into the role. Sora stood next to him, holding his hand with anxiety in her eyes. Tai squeezed her hand, seeking comfort as footsteps broke the silence. Matt stood on the opposite side of the circle from Kari and the others with his parents. They were all on the verge of tears. This wasn't like any fight they had been in before. This was a duel for a pointless cause made in malice. If something went wrong and either TK or Davis was killed, there would be no honor or glory in their demise, only grief. It was a grim situation indeed.  
  
TK entered the courtyard first. He wore his usual leather cap with neckguard along with the same green doublet, trousers, and boots he always wore, but now he put on a flexible studded leather breastplate and strapped a leather pauldron to his left shoulder. His green cape flowed behind him as he walked, but he quickly unfastened the brooch and let it fall to the ground before he stepped in the circle and drew his swords. Even though there was a slim chance of Davis using real strategy when he fought, there was no sense in taking unnecessary risks and giving his opponent a leverage point.  
  
Davis strode in stone-faced carrying a greatsword with him and wearing a steel breastplate strapped to his torso.  
  
"Alright," shouted Tai when the two had entered the circle. "You two shall fight until I command you to stop. You shall not fight to kill your opponent. If one of you is rendered unable to fight or leaves the circle, you will lose the duel." Tai made gestures as he spoke to emphasize his points. Though he spoke calmly, the brown-haired lord was tempted to call off the duel right there. "These are highly unusual methods, but we don't want to lose anyone today. Understood?"  
  
TK and Davis nodded, though they're eyes never strayed from each other.  
  
Taichi sighed, realizing neither one was going to back down. "Good," he said flatly. There was nothing good about any of this. "Begin!"  
  
Daisuke immediately rushed forward, bearing his sword above his head. A loud battle-cry erupted from his throat as he swung down.  
  
TK nimbly jumped aside and kicked Davis in the hollow of his knee, sending him flat on his back. The blonde lord scowled. If he hadn't dodged, he probably would have been killed. Takeru was right, Davis wasn't thinking before acting. This made it so much more dangerous.  
  
Davis recovered by rolling backwards and brought his sword up. The brash squire sneered. "You're going to pay for that TC."  
  
"My name is Takeru," the blonde boy shot back. He threw a round kick at Davis and hit him in the side. TK took his window of oppurtunity and came in, batting his opponent's greatsword away with his longsword and putting his shortsword to Davis' throat. "You lose."  
  
Davis scowled. "Not yet," he growled and brought his knee up hard into TK's groin, knocking the wind out of his adversary and sending him staggering backwards in pain.  
  
As TK recoiled trying to catch his second wind, Kari was beside herself. She could plainly see that Davis was capable of killing her betrothed and fear and anxiety overtook the sorceress. Meanwhile, Tai was shaking with anger. Davis was blatantly going against everything Tai had taught him. His squire was too caught up in himself and his jealousy to care about anything else. Taichi wanted badly to stop this, but none of the circumstances were right to do so.  
  
Daisuke charged Takeru and slammed his shoulder against him, sending the boy on his back. "You said something about you winning," Davis said arrogantly.  
  
To everyone's surprise, TK stood up and got into a defensive stance, gritting his teeth against the dull ache in his groin. "I'm just getting started." The young lord came in with a diagnol cut upward which Davis blocked. TK then quickly swung his other arm down and bludgeoned Daisuke over the head with the pommel of his shortsword.  
  
The brown-haired squire staggered backward. His head was reeling and he was seeing double.  
  
TK jumped and pulled a flying round kick, striking Davis upside the head once again. He landed and swung both blades at his opponent's greatsword. The clash of metal on metal rang out through the courtyard and the two-handed blade hit the flagstone ground then slid out of the ring stopping at the feet of Lord Yamato, who until now, couldn't bear to watch the abuse his little brother was taking. Everyone gasped as they saw Daisuke laying on the ground with a trickle of blood running down his chin from his lip and his nose bleeding with TK sanding over him stone-faced with his longsword pointed inches from the fallen squire's forehead. "I'm going to let you up," the blonde lord said. There was no emotion behind his speech, it was delivered in a cold monotone that could send chills up your spine. "If you insist, I will give you your sword and we can continue this fracas to its final stupidity. Or," at this point TK lifted his sword away and moved away from Davis, "you can come to your senses. Which is it going to be?"  
  
Davis stared at TK for a moment then finally sighed in defeat and humiliation. "You win," he said, almost inaudibly.  
  
"The duel has ended," Tai shouted as he walked into the circle. "Lord Takeru is the victor!"  
  
There was no cheering. Instead, there was murmuring among the servants and they moved aside to clear a path as the defeated Daisuke walked off without a word.  
  
**************************  
  
The next day during training, Taichi was still upset with his squire. He frowned as he lazily blocked each of Davis' attacks. The wooden swords clashed together loudly, echoing throughout the old ruins still stained with blood from the battle the other day. "Come on," Taichi ordered crossly. "Stop trying to hit me and hit me." The brown-haired knight was not holding back and without knowing it, began fighting offensively, pushing Davis back.  
  
The brash young boy was hard-pressed to keep up with his master. Soon, Tai had knocked the practice sword from his hand and pinned him to a wall with the edge of his own weapon against the boy's throat.  
  
"I'm still very disappointed in you," Tai growled. "Practice is over for today. I want you to reread the knight's code. Tomorrow, I will test you on how much you know about courage, valor, and honor." At this point Taichi narrowed his eyes. "If I am not satisfied, the lessons will be repeated again and again without leave until you get it right. Understood?"  
  
Davis simply nodded. He hadn't spoken to anyone, even Veemon since the duel. He knew why his master was angry with him. The boy was wracked with guilt and shame. He no longer felt he could look Takeru or Hikari in the eye again.  
  
The ride home was made in silence. Daisuke went to his quarters and laid upon the bed, staring towards the ceiling for hours.  
  
"Davis?" Veemon shook his friend's shoulder. The draconic digimon had been worried about Daisuke. The boy's silence had been very unsettling.  
  
"Why do these things always happen to me," the brown-haired squire asked softly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why do I always get humiliated in front of everyone? What did I do to deserve this?" Davis' voice was flat and monotone. He didn't have his usual spirit and manic energy.  
  
"What do you mean? Just because you lost a duel..." Veemon was cut off by his counterpart.  
  
"Exactly. I lost. I made a fool of myself in starting that fight." Davis sighed sadly. "Kari probably hates me now."  
  
The little digimon patted his friend's arm reassuringly. "It's not the end of the world. So Tai's a little mad. You know he takes a while to let things drop. And Kari and TK told me they've forgiven you." That was all Veemon needed to say.  
  
The brown-haired squire turned over to face his bonded companion. "Really?" Relief started to spread across his face when Veemon nodded yes. Davis sat up and smirked. "I guess I have been over-reacting a lot these days."  
  
"Yeah," Veemon assured him. "Things aren't as bad as you think. Try to be more positive."  
  
Davis nodded. "Thank you. I needed that."  
  
***************************  
  
In the courtyard, Cody was showing Tai his fighting abilities. For someone so young, the boy handled his wakizashi with great skill.  
  
"Very nice," Taichi said, deeply impressed. "Where did you learn to fight like that? You're a natural."  
  
Iori looked down sadly. "My mentor taught me much before he died. There was a plague back in my homelands. My family and teacher didn't make it."  
  
"Oh." Tai put a comforting hand on the young warrior's shoulder. "I'm sorry." The brown-haired knight didn't know what else to say. He had never suffered such a loss, thus he couldn't say he fully understood what Cody must be feeling.  
  
The young orphan was silent, but looked up to Taichi. His green eyes showed he was thankful for the sympathy of another.  
  
At this time, Armadillomon walked into the courtyard. "Hey, Cody," the digimon called.  
  
"Yes?"  
"That scholar boy, Izzy, wants to talk with us. He said we wanted to ask some questions about me and how you got your digivice. You know, questions like that."  
  
"Alright." Iori turned and bowed to Tai. "I'll talk with you later Lord Kamiya."  
  
Tai smiled and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You can call me Tai. All my friends do, and I feel I can trust you as a friend." Taichi really did trust this boy. He was always very honest and straightforward.  
  
Cody smiled. "Thank you." With that, he turned and left with Armadillomon who headed for the castle's library where Izzy would be waiting.  
  
***************************  
  
Two weeks later, the kingdom was buzzing with excitement for the anniversary that day. Already, performers were wondering the streets. Fire eaters, magicians, musicians, jugglers, clowns and buffoons, knife-throwers, acrobats, and many more went throughout Odaiba entertaining the people. Good food was to be had by all, people were excused from their jobs that day to drink and make merry with friends and family. There was even talk of a fireworks display to be held that night.  
  
At the royal castle, everyone was celebrating, watching the entertainment, and some people were spending time alone with their sweethearts. Matt was helping Mimi with her already exquisite singing voice, backing up her singing with his mandolin, as the two sang Greensleeves in the atrium. TK and Kari were in the grand ballroom helping hte servants set the place for the masquerade that night, while Davis wondered aimlessly trying to find where Kari was. Izzy and Yolei were chatting in the library, not really very concerned with many of the other festivities going on. Naturally, Tai and Sora were out in the courtyard sparring. She was an excellent sharpshooter, but the amazon needed to learn to fight melee eventually. Tai was going easier on her since she had less experience in hand-to-hand combat, but she was learning fast.  
  
Finally, it was time for the masquerade to begin. The ballroom doors opened and dozens of guests, both noblemen and peasants, arrived in costume. The upper class members had very well-tailored expensive disguises, while the peasants wore home-made costumes that, while not of the same quality, were still well done. More guests showed up quickly. Soon, many people were either talking or dancing under the emmense brass chandaliers.  
  
One girl, with shoulder-length red hair was dressed up in leather breeches, a white shirt with puffy sleeves, boots with a wide cuff, and a three-cornered hat. She had an unloaded pistol and a cutlass at her hip. A pirate. The black mask with storm clouds etched into the surface completed the look, and though she was definately very tough, it wasn't very hard to tell she was a woman. She looked around for one man in particular though she couldn't find him.  
  
Suddenly, one of the servants blew a horn and shouted. "Announcing the arrival of two new guests. Very distinguished gentlemen who have come to honor Odaiba." The servant stepped aside and in marched two men. The first was very tall with long brown hair tied in a ponytail. He wore completely black, with armor that seemed to be made of the scales of a black dragon. His metal gauntlets ended in taloned fingers and on his boots he wore spurs. A large hand-and-a-half sword was at his hip with a dragon's head pommel and a hilt forged to resemble one of the dragon's wings and one of its talons. To enhance his dramatic apppearance, he also wore a flowing red cape with several scorched holes and tattered edges. Finally, he wore a mask of obsidian that left only his lips and lower jaw exposed, his eyes hidden in the shadows of the mask. Next to him was a shorter man also dressed in black, a black doublet, breeches, boots, gloves, a velvet black cape with a silk mask with the white sillouette of a serpent, its mouth open and fangs unsheathed, emblazened on front that covered his whole head and left his eyes in shadow. The two looked very impressive and many people applauded the sheer drama of their entrance.  
  
The first man spoke in a deep, commanding voice. "I am Rei, demon slayer."  
  
Rei's friend then spoke, but in a ghostly whispering voice. "And I am Wraith, bard of the shadows."  
  
The sounds of the masquerade soon resumed. Rei proceeded toward the pirate girl, his spurs jingling as he walked. "May I have this dance," he asked. He still spoke in his deep rumbling voice, but the commanding tone was gone, instead replaced by a warmness that his dark appearance would not suggest.  
  
Too stunned to reply, the pirate girl simply nodded. She distantly heard Rei ask her name as he took her hand. "My name is Storm." She tried to look through the shadows of his obsidian mask to his eyes, but in vain.  
  
Rei guided his new partner to the dance floor. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and they started slowly rotating on the spot to the slow, pleasant music. He danced surprisingly well, considering his armor and the spurs on his boots.  
  
Several men briefly considered cutting in for the next dance with Storm, but when Rei cast his dark visage at them, they quickly backed away.  
  
Meanwhile, Wraith took to a dark corner. He stood in the shadows with his arms folded over his chest. Several young girls asked him to dance, but he turned them down with a wave of his gloved hand. It wasn't until a new woman entered that the young man became spellbound.  
  
The new arrival wore a dress of purest velvet red like the petals of a rose. Her long brown hair was tied in a high ponytail and swung gracefully across her back. She wore several bejewled rings and bracelets on her slender fingers and wrists and had a beautiful cut ruby on a gold chain around her neck. She wore a soft pink mask over her face decorated with a border of tiny emeralds and diamonds. She looked around and soon spotted Wraith. The two stared at each other for a moment before she walked towards him slowly.  
  
Wraith was captivated by the woman's beauty and slowly walked toward her. They stopped not more than three feet apart and the shadowy young man bowed deeply. "May I ask your name, milady," he inquired in his ghostly voice.  
  
The young lady blushed under her mask. The voice sent shivers up her spine. Not cold chills, but shivers of excitement. For some reason, she felt drawn to the supernatural charm the man before her possessed. "I'm the Princess Scarlet. And you?"  
  
"Call me Wraith. Would you honor me with a dance?" He extended his gloved hand to her and tilted his head slightly to one side.  
  
Scarlet accepted his hand and smiled. "Certainly." Soon, she and Wraith were dancing together beside Rei and Storm. The two couples danced contentedly as the other guests cleared into a circle around them, watching with great interest the dark men and their beautiful ladies.  
  
Meanwhile, two young people, in similar angel costumes danced together, staring into each other's eyes. Another young man in shining plate armor with a giant zweihander over his back watched them with mixed emotions of anger, sadness, and envy. He had tried to cut in with the girl several times but she only wanted to dance with the other angel. The three young people knew each other's identities, though they could recognize no one else.  
  
Suddenly, the curtains on the giant stained-glass windows were drawn shut and Biyomon and Tentomon drew a velvet cover under the chandaliers, plunging the room into darkness. It was time for the unmasking.  
  
Storm slowly reached up to Rei's mask as he placed a gloved hand on hers. Simultaneously, they drew back the masks and opened their eyes as the curtains and the veil were drawn away and light came flooding back into the room.  
  
"Tai?"  
  
"Sora?"  
  
They both stared into each other's eyes, unmoving.  
  
"Well," Tai said first. "This is interesting, though not completely unexpected. I should have known."  
  
"Mm-hmm," Sora nodded. She smiled. "That's a really nice outfit. I was a little worried about those gauntlets though. What's to stop you from forcing me to dance with you? That sword doesn't help either," she teased him.  
  
Tai chuckled. "Don't give me any ideas. The prospect of dancing with you all night sounds very appealling," he said.  
  
Sora wasn't expecting that. She turned a light pink and playfully slapped his shoulder. "Do you want to go to the gardens to talk?"  
  
The young knight offered his arm to the amazon. "Absolutely." With that, the two walked from the ballroom arm-in-arm.  
  
While this was going on, two more people were pleasantly surprised.  
  
"Matt?"  
  
"Mimi? Wow, you really had me fooled. I've never seen you look better." Matt looked her up and down. It was true. He had never before met a girl this beautiful.  
  
"I'm going to assume that was a compliment," Mimi said as she giggled. She brushed Yamato's hair from his dark blue eyes. "Really, you shouldn't try to cover up such handsome features. That mask didn't do you any kind of justice."  
  
The young lord smiled and said in his whispery voice with a charismatic tone "I have this effect on women. It's not easy being popular."  
  
Mimi giggled again. "Oh, shut up."  
  
Th two younger dancers didn't need to remove the masks to know who the other was. Takeru and Hikari looked into each other's eyes smiling.  
  
Davis sighed in defeat and walked out of the ballroom to go watch the fireworks that would be starting soon.  
  
Takeru leaned down and kissed his betrothed on her cheek. "I love you," he whispered sweetly.  
  
Kari gasped and her heart skipped a beat. She kissed him passionately and looked into his dark blue eyes. "I love you too." She kissed him again and this time he kissed her back. They stood in each other's arms for several minutes, oblivious to all the people around them.  
  
**************************  
  
Tai and Sora sat at the statue of Jubei Yagami, the founder of Odaiba and Taichi's ancestor. Tai had taken off his gauntlets and the armor over his torso. The two held hands and looked into each other's eyes. "Sora," Tai said at last.  
  
"Yes Tai," she said, a dreamy expression on her face.  
  
"I've become rather...fond of you," the brown-haired lord said, trying to find the right words. "You are like no other girl I've ever met. You're perfect in every way." Slowly, their faces drew closer and closer until they were centimeters apart. As Tai spoke, he and Sora started to slowly close their eyes. "What I'm saying is, Sora, I...think...I...lo-"  
  
"Lord Kamiya! Lord Kamiya!" The shouts echoed throughout the courtyard. Tai and Sora jumped apart in surprise and scowled. The mood was ruined.  
  
Cray came running into the courtyard, gasping for air and his face pale. "Lord Kamiya! Terrible news!"  
  
Tai sprang to his feet. "What?! What happened, Cray?"  
  
Cray struggled to regain his breath. "Dark digimon and enemy soldiers. They're attacking the kingdom and have razed several farms, killed several families. They're coming this way!"  
  
"Bastards," Tai cursed. "Cray, have the alarm sent throughout the castle. I want every soldier and militia man ready in ten minutes outside the gates. Have the cannons readied. I'm going to the armory." At this point, Taichi turned to Sora. "Sora, will you please help us? Yours will be the best bow out there."  
  
Sora stood up and looked to Tai and Cray. "Of course. Anyone who tries to hurt my friends shall have to answer to me."  
  
Tai smiled and nodded. He dashed off back into the palace to get to the armory.  
  
*************************  
  
Ten minutes later, most of the army and militia stood waiting outside the palace along with Matt, Sora, Mimi, TK, Kari, and Davis. Towering above them all stood Greymon, Garurumon, Togemon, Birdramon, Angemon, Angewomon, and X-Veemon. Izzy, Yolei, Joe, Tentomon, Hawkmon, and Gomamon stayed in the palace to protect it in case the invaders got inside. The tension in the air was thick as everyone anticipated the arrival of Lord Kamiya and his son. They didn't have to wait long though, as Tai soon stepped out beside his father who was riding a great white steed. Lord Kamiya was wearing chain armor and was carrying a broadsword. Tai had a longsword at his hip with a pommel like Greymon's head and a black leather vest with extended shoulders that had a chain shirt fastened to the outside.  
  
Everyone watched the top of the grassy hill, waiting for the incoming attack. "Are you ready Taichi," Lord Kamiya asked his son.  
  
Tai smirked. "Always. I've seen battle plenty of times." The brown-haired lord drew his sword to emphasize his point. "Let the dogs come. We'll stop them."  
  
"Hey," Garurumon snorted indignantly.  
  
Tai chuckled. "Sorry."  
  
Garurumon opened his mouth to speak, but shut it when the yelling of hundreds of voices came from past the hill. Soon, hundreds of soldiers and dark digimon no one had ever seen before charged forward, coming in throngs. The soldiers carried swords, maces, flails, and axes and wore studded leather armor and some of them had chain shirts. The digimon were black bipedal creatures with triple-jointed legs and long scrawny arms ending in talons. They had bulbous white eyes a large mouths with long sharp teeth. Only a few of these strange creatures had weapons, preferring to use whatever their natural attacks were. "This is it," the wolf digimon said grimly. "We fight to the death."  
  
It only took a few seconds for chaos to erupt. The champion digimon struck first, decimating dozens of attackers. Lord Kamiya led his men into battle, his sword gleaming the in the light of fires sparked by nova blasts and the moon. He cut off limbs and heads that got too close to him and fought fearlessly in the midst of his enemies.  
  
Sora fired arrow after arrow, never once missing her mark. She shouted orders to the other archers, strategically sending clouds of arrows to locations on the fields where the enemies were in large groups and easier to hit.  
  
Matt and TK were rallying the militia men. They knew how to inspire courage and faith in the greatest coward, and went into battle with high hearts and spirits.  
  
Tai and Davis rushed into battle fearlessly. Davis had some difficulty, but he had improved vastly since he started training and was able to hold his own. Tai on the other hand was effortlessly dispatching his opponents, fighting several at a time. He even stole a shortsword from one opponent he felled and began fighting like Takeru only with more grim determination behind his blows.  
  
Kari stood in the ramparts, preparing a chain of spells. She hated having to kill, but these raiders left her with little choice. The sorceress sent forth a massive fireball of blue flame. It struck a group of dark digimon who were trying to flank Angemon and Angewomon. The evil digimon were consumed in the flames, screaming wildly before they died and disintegrated as all digimon do at death.  
  
Mimi began chanting and soon her staff transformed itself into a boken, a wooden sword as sharp and deadly as any blade of steel. She wasn't much of a warrior, but she held her ground, determined to fight to defend the palace along with the royal guards.  
  
Tai swept the legs out from under his opponent and skewered him, causing a small spray of blood. He turned one hundred and eighty degrees with a rising slash as he stood up, cutting open the belly of a dark digimon who disintegrated before anything other than his intestines touched the ground. Taichi was covered in blood now, though he did not pay attention to it, focused only on winning this battle. The young knight parried the two broadswords a soldier came at him with in such a way that he crossed both his arms and his opponent's. Before the evil soldier could react, Tai slashed out with both of his blades and nearly tore the man in two at the waist. The soldier fell to the ground in a puddle of gore, his intestines cut and his two halves linked by his badly damaged spine.  
  
Takeru began a defensive spin to parry his attacker's mace. The defensive spin involved spinning two weapons in figure-eights so as to form a wheel that could be used offensively or defensively. The technique wasn't easy to do right, but it suited TK's fluid style of fighting. He broke the spin and thrust his longsword down into the soldier's foot, pinning him to the spot. The man only had a second to scream in pain before the young lord impaled his chest on his shortsword. TK turned his grip so he held his longsword point-down and pulled the blade from his opponent's foot while striking the now dead soldier in the face with the sword's pommel and knocking the corpse backward. Takeru quickly raised his shortsword to block an incoming blade from a soldier trying to flank him. The blonde boy swung his longsword, still held point-down, inwards and slashed the man's chest. He quickly slashed out again, cutting his legs this time. The body fell lifeless as TK quickly started twirling his longsword in a figure-eight, cleaving open the skull of a dark digimon that started to advance on him.  
  
Daisuke made a wide upward sweep with his greatsword, knocking the soldier's flail from his grip. The brash squire then used the blades momentum to swing it completely around, switching hands as it passed behind his back, and brought up another upward cut into the man's torso. Unfortunately, the blade got stuck in the evil soldier's spine. Davis gave the sword a hard tug to release his weapon from the felled enemy and was met with a spray of blood and bodily fluids in his face that temporarily blinded him. The brown-haired boy managed to get his greatsword loose when he recoiled instinctively, and as luck would have it, the blade swung back and lopped off the head of a dark digimon that tried to pounce on him. Daisuke felt the warm spray of blood on his back and when he cleaned his face to get a look at what happened, he thanked the gods for that stroke of luck.  
  
Yamato made a quick duck under the dark digimon's swinging talons and stabbed it through the heart. The digimon gave a brief death rattle and disintigrated. The blond lord stood up. He saw a man charging for him with a giant two-handed axe. Matt, thinking fast, picked up a rock he found at his feet, and threw it hard. The stone hit the soldier in the stomach, causing him to double over, his body parallel with the ground as he dropped his weapon and continued to blunder onward, unable to stop himself. Matt dropped into a split and stuck his rapier out. Just as the blonde bard had predicted, the soldier didn't stop himself in time. The sword went into his gasping mouth and straight down his throat, puncturing several organs. Yamato withdrew his sword, causing even more damage to the man's innards and let him drop dead on the ground.  
  
Mimi began chanting. Two digimon were advancing on her and the guards. Her eyes glowed of their own brilliant green light and vine-like tendrils shot up from the ground around the digimon's feet, pinning them to the spot. They gaped in horror, helpless as Mimi brought her boken down and eviscerated one, while the guard beside her brought his halberd down in a devastating slash, splitting the other dark digimon's head like a watermelon.  
  
Sora saw Taichi out on the fields. He was trying to confuse his opponent by leading him around a tree, using cover and evasion to his advantage. The amazon knocked an arrow, drew her bowstring and released. The arrow flew foreward and struck the mercenary in the back of the head. The metal tip came out his mouth and embedded itself in the tree. Tai looked to where the arrow came from and Sora smiled at him. He nodded his thanks and returned to the fight as the red-haired archer began firing arrow after arrow at her enemies.  
  
Greymon lowered his head and scooped up half-a-dozen dark digimon in his massive jaws. Before they could fight back, the great dinosaur-like digimon brought his teeth down, and a torrent of blood sprayed from his mouth, showering the battlefield around him. Greymon spit out the disintegrating remains of the unfortunate dark digimon and brought his massive foot down on two soldiers, squashing them flat as insects.  
  
Angemon and Angewoman launched their attacks simultaneously, causing a small crater where the blasts struck and the smell of scorched flesh filled the air as the corpses of the evil digimon they had just attacked dissipated into nothing.  
  
Garurumon grabbed a soldier, a giant of a man standing seven feet tall, in his jaws and began violently shaking him from side to side. The wolf digimon then ran up to a tree and began slamming the screaming soldier repeatedly against the trunk. In moments, the mercenary was dead. Garurumon threw the body into a pair of dark digimon and blasted them away with his attack.  
  
Then, in the midst of the bedlam and chaos, a dark figure strode to the top of the hill. He was seven feet and six inches tall with an enormous bastard sword (AN: Same thing as a hand-and-a-half sword.) with a hilt like two legs from a large spider and several barbs and hooks in the blade in his hand and a black helm over his head. He had long rippling black hair and seemed to radiate blood lust. Lord Kamiya spotted the figure instantly. He knew this warrior well. It was Hessianmon, (AN: Crappy name, I know. I promise you better next time.) a ruthless digimon warrior who never took prisoners. It was said that Hessianmon once served a master, but tried to betray him and failed. Instead of killing him, Hessianmon's master stripped him of his special attacks, leaving the evil digimon with only his sword as a means of destruction. Hessianmon surveyed the battlefield with an evil smile, a smile that widened when he saw Lord Kamiya riding forward. "Looks like we're going to have a rematch." His voice carried a tone of malevolent amusement and his breath smelt foul like rotting flesh. Hessianmon raised his sword and charged to meet Lord Kamiya for another battle.  
  
Taichi spotted his father dismounting and clashing swords with the evil digimon up on the hill. "Father," he shouted, and rushed to meet the two, desperate to help. Alas, the young knight was too late. Hessianmon kicked him hard in the chest and used Lord Kamiya's temporary distraction from seeing his son knocked back, swinging his bastard sword right into the ruler's ribs. "No!" Tai was devastated seeing his father murdered before him. Deep inside, the flames that always burned in his heart and gave him his courage and spirit became a roaring bonfire.  
  
Hessianmon laughed evilly at Lord Kamiya's dying body. "Now for the coup de gras," he taunted. As he was about to deliver the final blow, Tai slashed his side, causing the evil digimon to howl in pain and turn to face the brown-haired knight. "So you wish to join your father," he sneered. "Fine with me."  
  
Tai was seeing blood. His soul was burning with hatred, remorse, and vengeance. He began furiously attacking Hessianmon, going toe to toe with the evil warrior and holding his own.  
  
Hessianmon couldn't believe the boy's skill and blind determination. This only angered him more and he increased his efforts.  
  
Tai searched for a weak spot and finally kicked Hessianmon hard in the groin, hoping he was humanoid in more than just his standing upright. Indeed, the evil digimon was, and he dropped to his knees in pain. Tai hooked his longsword in one of the barbs in Hessianmon's sword and wrenched the blade from the dark warrior's hand. Tai grabbed the bastard sword and sent several inches of it into his opponent's chest.  
  
Hessianmon fell backward, his eyes wide in shock. He was having trouble breathing and Tai kept his own sword in his flesh.  
  
"Your sins are like your sword," Taichi growled in a voice that sounded as if it was not his own. "They come back on you to make you pay. Now you'll burn in Hell. This is for my father!" Tai was about to drive the sword through Hessianmon's body and kill him, but the dark warrior interrupted him.  
  
"Wait! Please... mercy..."  
  
"Mercy," Tai said, highly enraged. "You murdered my father nad so many poeple in cold blood. You gave them no mercy, yet plead for it from those you've hurt?" The young knight spit in the digimon's face. "Don't sicken me."  
  
"P...Pleasssse...," Hessianmon continued. "I'll give you anything..."  
  
Taichi narrowed his eyes. "Offer me everything that I ask for," he said in a low voice.  
  
"...Anything... you want..."  
  
Tai twisted the sowrd three hudred and sixty degrees inside Hessianmon's chest, tearing the flesh and causing the dark digimon to scream in pain. "I want my father back, you son of a bitch." With that, the young knight thrust the sword down through Hessianmon's chest. The blade came out of its owner's back and sank into the ground, pinning the evil warrior.  
  
At the death of their leader, the soldiers and dark digimon panicked and fled into the woods. The champion digimon gave chase. The invaders wouldn't get very far.  
  
Kari came rushing out from the castle and saw her father's dying body, cradled in the arms of her older brother who was sobbing uncontrollably. "Father," she whispered and collapsed on her parent and brother's bodies.  
  
Slowly, Yamato, Sora, Daisuke, Takeru, and Mimi walked up to the scene, their eyes clouded with tears. The sight before them was heart-breaking.  
  
Lord Kamiya suddenly spoke, though his voice was hoarse and strangled. "Taichi... Hikari..." As he spoke, a trickle of blood came from his mouth. "Please... take my amulet. The heavens have given me enough time to... say only this much... Take the amulet... Your mother will explain from there..." Lord Kamiya's eyes began to roll up in his head.  
  
"Father," Tai cried urgently. "Don't die! We'll get you to a healer. Just hang on," he said, choking on his sobs.  
  
"Please Father," Kari weeped. "Please don't leave!" The young sorceress was beside herself with grief.  
  
"Goodbye... my children... I'm proud of you two... I'll be watching you... from Heaven..." With that, Lord Kamiya expelled his final breath. He was dead.  
  
  
*sniff* That's so sad. How will Lord Kamiya's death affect everyone? What is the significance of his amulet? In Chapter 4: Race Against Death, an assassin poisons Tai. Can the others find the plants Joe needs to make the antidote in time? Find out. 


	4. Race Against Death

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Author's Notes: Part 4 comin' at ya!. Whew! There sure were a lot of lines in the last one. From now on I'm just going to write the story and add a little guide after the prologue that lists all borrowed content and sources. This chapter will build a little more on several character relationships including those of digimon. However, it's supposed to be more suspenseful than romantic but I'll let you be the judge. Anyway, on with the story.  
  
  
Chapter 4- Race Against Death  
  
  
Everyone gathered as Taichi slid the shield amulet from his father's neck and draped it over his own.  
  
Hikari crossed her father's arms over his chest, then turned and threw herself into her betrothed's arms, letting the tears she was holding flow forward in torrents.  
  
"Father," the young knight said out loud, "I will fulfill your dying request. Your death was not in vain. We have won and also vanquished a powerful enemy. May your soul be at peace." With that, Tai stood up and walked off, but not towards the palace. He went into the woods to be alone.  
  
Mimi sighed as she watched Taichi leave. "Poor Tai. He's obviously only beginning to get through the initial shock." With this, the girl turned to the group. "Somebody better talk to him before he does something rash."  
  
Matt raised a hand. "Augumon and I will go. He's my best friend. I can't let him go without saying something."  
  
"No," Sora said, stepping forward. "If it is alright Yamato, I'd like to talk to him. Alone." She looked at Matt pleadingly.  
  
The blonde bard nodded his approval. "Alright. Go talk to him."  
  
"Thank you," the amazon smiled and walked off to find Taichi. She didn't have to search far. Not more than twenty yards into the forest, Tai leaned back against a boulder, tears running down his face. "Tai," she timidly called.  
  
The young knight turned to face Sora. "Yes?"  
  
"I'm so sorry about your father," Sora said approaching Taichi. "I lost my parents to a war, so I know what it's like."  
  
Tai wiped the tears from his face and looked deeply into the amazon's red eyes. "I know my father would have wanted this. He said when his time came, he wanted it to be in battle." He reached a hand up and cupped her cheek. "Please say that you won't leave because of this."  
  
Sora melted at his touch. "Why would I leave," she asked, confused as to why he would ask such a thing.  
  
"Sora I have something very important that I've been trying to say all night." Tai's rich brown eyes began welling up with more tears. This wasn't the best place to say this and it was hardly the appropriate time, but he had to say it now.  
  
Sora closed her eyes and listened closely, eager to hear what he had to say. Her world came to a halt, her heart nearly breaking when he suddenly jerked his hand from her cheek. Did he hate her? Why did he do that? The amazon desperately opened her eyes on the verge of tears but gasped in shock when she saw Tai staring wide-eyed at his arm. He had recoiled because his upper arm had been impaled by a black arrow, with raven feather fletching and a head coated in weaponblack. The young knight was in shock and was unable to even cry out in pain. Sora took out her bow and knocked an arrow, searching for whoever shot Tai. She soon spotted a cloaked figure with bow in hand running through the trees. Sora released her arrow and it landed in the figure's back, causing whoever it was to promptly drop dead.  
  
Tai staggered backward and leaned on a nearby tree. He suddenly started yelling in pain. "My arm! It feels like its on fire!" He ripped his sleeve off and fainted in combination from the intense pain and the horrific sight before him. The flesh around the arrow was beginning to turn an unnatural color of purple.  
  
**************************  
  
One hour later, everyone was waiting outside of Tai's chambers for Jyou to give them news. Matt was pacing nervously while Mimi was wringing her hands. Kari was sobbing onto TK's shoulder as he held her close to him, trying to maintain his strong composure. Davis leaned against the wall and scowled, frustrated with the helplessness he felt. Lady Kamiya was beside herself. Lord and Lady Ishida were trying to console her but couldn't hide their worry. Izzy and Yolei sat quietly, nervous and scared, but doing better at remaining relatively calm than most of the others. Cody stood in the middle of the hallway, stone-faced.  
  
Then, Joe emerged. Everyone at once asked what the situation was, if Taichi was going to be alright, and many more questions in a loud cacophany. "Everyone, please be quiet," Jyou ordered and the hall fell silent. "The situation looks grim," the blue-haired healer said solemnly. "Lord Taichi's been poisoned. I have seen the toxin only once before. Now I have good news and bad news."  
  
"Well? Let's hear it," Lord Ishida said.  
  
"The bad news is that the poison is lethal, which should be fairly obvious. With the medicines I have, all I can do is keep Lord Taichi alive until dawn." Joe pursed his lips and sighed. "His chances aren't good."  
  
"Well what's the good news, then," Daisuke demanded.  
  
"There is a way to cure him. Dragon's blood flowers."  
  
Mimi looked up. "I know those flowers! They grow a short way north of here in abundance." Everyone was now looking at the magician girl now. "The nectar is said to be a potent antidote to almost every kind of ailment."  
  
"Correct," Jyou nodded. "Someone's going to have to go get those flowers. We have about seven hours, and it's a long trip."  
  
"I'll go," Mimi immediately volunteered. "I know where they are, I can get them easily."  
  
"You're not going alone," Yamato said to Mimi. "Tai saved my life on several occasions. I could never call myself his friend if I wasn't willing to do the same for him."  
  
Sora stood up. "I'm going too. Once we get those flowers, Birdramon can get me back here faster than Togemon or Garurumon can." The amazon was right, of course. Everyone agreed and it wasn't long before they were all preparing to leave.  
  
Tai was still conscious. There was absolutely nothing Jyou could give the young lord to sedate him, the poison cancelled out any drugs that could have given its victim temporary relief. The ugly purple color was beginning to spread across Taichi's body. It was now covering his whole arm and was creeping over his chest, upper back, and neck. "Davis," he called. His voice was hoarse and scratchy.  
  
Daisuke walked up to his master's bedside and kneeled. "Yes, sir?"  
  
"Recite the virtues of a knight." Tai looked up at the celing and listened to his squire. He needed something to distract him from his pain.  
  
"A knight is sworn to valor, honor, truth, patience, courage, strength, justice, chivalry, trust, and loyalty." Davis spoke without pause. Since his defeat in the duel, the young squire had been trying harder than ever to live by the knight's code.  
  
"Good," Tai smiled. "What are the knight's duties?"  
  
"His blade defends the helpless. His might upholds the weak. His word speaks only truth. His wrath undoes the wicked." Once again Davis delivered perfectly.  
  
Kari watched her brother with worried eyes while TK stood near the door. He reasoned that whoever made an attempt on Taichi's life might come back to make sure nothing went wrong.  
  
Jyou was mixing a special green paste from some of the herbs in his healer's pack. Taichi winced as the blue-hiared doctor applied the mixture and a fresh bandage to his wound, but smirked when the medicine he was just given numbed the pain slightly. "This is only a quick fix," Joe said simply. "It will give you a little relief, though I need to apply a fresh bandage every hour."  
  
Tai nodded his thanks. "I appreciate the help. Tell me, honestly, what are the chances that the others are going to make it back in time? If I'm going to join my father, I'd like to know."  
  
Kari sobbed. "Please don't say that Tai," she choked out. "You're going to make it."  
  
Joe sighed. "We can't be sure of that Lady Hikari. The chances of Lord Yamato and the others getting the flower to him in time are very slim."  
  
"About one thousand to one," Izzy added. "I hate to say it, but those are the odds, and we must be prepared for the worst."  
  
"One thousand to one," Takeru asked.  
  
"Yes," Izzy replied solemnly.  
  
"Then there's still a chance," the blonde lord said with a slightly lighter tone. "If you keep your hope and faith, then there will always be a beacon of light even in the darkest hour."  
  
Miyako smiled lightly at his words. "Well spoken Lord Takeru. Well spoken."  
  
"What we should be doing right now," TK continued, "is keeping our guard up and not fussing over every little detail."  
  
"Why's that," Tai asked hoarsely.  
  
"Whoever tried to kill you," the blonde lord frowned, "may try to finish the job if they hear about my brother going for the cure."  
  
"Good thinking," Tai smiled  
  
"We'll take shifts in pairs. Seems the best idea to me." It was Davis this time. "I'll stand first watch. Who's with me?" Part of Daisuke hoped Kari would volunteer, but the other side told him that she was in love with Takeru and he knew she wasn't going to have a change of heart.  
  
"I'll stay with you." Everyone turned to see TK, a solemn look etched on his face. "A couple good swordarms should be enough for the time being. The room is too small, though, for our digimon."  
  
"I have an idea," Hawkmon said.  
  
"What is it," Yolie asked, looking down at her partner.  
  
"Most of us can digivolve to champions with the ability to fly. We can keep a patrol around the castle." The bird-like digimon smiled and looked at everyone to get their response.  
  
"Not a bad idea, but most of us are tired out from the fight," Gatomon replied, her ears starting to droop.  
  
"She's right," Veemon added. "I may be a few swords short of a full armory, but I know well enough that I'm exhausted."  
  
Hawkmon realized the flaw in his plan and hung his head. "Well," he said, "I don't suppose there's anything stopping me and Tentomon."  
  
"He's right," the bug digimon replied. "The two of us will keep patrol around the castle until the rest of you can get your strength back."  
  
"That's seems like a sound idea," Izzy added.  
  
******************************  
  
Patamon and Gatomon stood outside Taichi's door, keeping watch on the outside. They still had energy enough to fight back if anyone tried to break into the young lord's room.  
  
"This just isn't fair," Patamon said after a long silence.  
  
Gatomon looked up and sighed. She knew it wasn't fair. In one night Lord Kamiya was killed and his son may die in a few hours. But what couls they do except wait for the others to come back? It was very frustrating.  
  
Cray came by, his eyes still watered with tears as he brought over a silver tray with food and set it before the two digimon. "For your strength," he said simply. The green-haired servant bowed and walked off, wiping a salty year from his eye.  
  
"Poor Cray," Patamon frowned as he took a slice of bread. "He's pretty broken-hearted about all of this."  
  
Gatomon nodded as she took a filet of fish. "He's been in the service of the Kamiyas since he was Tai's age. It must be painful to watch the people you grew to love as family die." The cat digimon sighed.  
  
"Well," Patamon began as he looked at Gatomon, "if it is any consolation, I promise I'll never leave you."  
  
Gatomon felt her cheeks redden under her white fur as she looked at the winged digimon beside her and met his gaze. "Taking advice from Takeru again," she asked playfully.  
  
Patamon smiled as he and Gatomon leaned against each other sharing the food. "I might be." Right now, they both needed a reason to smile. Yamato once said it wasn't healthy to be constantly depressed.  
  
******************************  
  
Garurumon was running at full speed. Gabumon had managed to shovel down enough food to feed five people in about five minutes. It was strength enough to get him to digivolve and stay that way long enough to reach the flowers. Palmon was sitting on his head, using her Poison Ivy vines to hold onto him. Biyomon was flying behind them, easily being able to keep up, though she would have to rest soon and ride on the wolf digimon's back as she did not have his endurance. Matt was holding onto Garurumon's neck as he sat on his back. Mimi and Sora were behind the blonde bard respectively, holding onto whatever they could grab to stay on. For Sora, this was large fistfuls of Garurumon's thick fur, much to the digimon's discomfort. For Mimi, this meant latching onto Yamato like a vice.  
  
"So how long have you and Lord Yamato been partners," Palmon asked, trying to make pleasant conversation with Garurumon.  
  
"I don't want to be rude," the wolf digimon said between breaths, "but I need to conserve my air. Once we're able stop, we can talk then. Alright?"  
  
Palmon nodded, understanding that it must be hard to keep this pace when you're talking. "Alright."  
  
"Mimi," Matt shouted, trying to make himself heard over the wind whipping through their ears. "How much farther until we reach the fields where these flowers grow?"  
  
Mimi though for a moment, taking in the landscape. "If we don't stop or slow down we should make it in another hour.  
  
"That leaves us with two hours to get back before it's too late," Sora said, fighting back tears. The situation did not look good at all.  
  
From nowhere, a great fireball struck in front of Garurumon. The wolf digimon was able to leap over the smoking crater just in time, nearly losing his passengers. "Where the hell did that come from?!"  
  
*****************************  
  
"So," Davis began. He tried to find the words, but they refused to surface.  
  
"You want to speak to me about Hikari, don't you." Takeru half-frowned and half-smirked. The brown-haired squire beside him was very predictable but this was not a subject TK was overly eager to speak to him of.  
  
"Yes," came Daisuke's simple reply. "I want to know just how do you two feel. I left just after the unmasking at the party."  
  
Takeru sighed. He really hated to have to be the one to tell Daisuke this. The brash squire had as many faults as the fields had rice, but he was still a friend, and TK knew the answer was going to be unpleasant for him. "Hikari and I are in love. We have been since we were betrothed, but it was always unspoken until tonight."  
  
Davis sighed. Strangely, he didn't feel quite as badly as he thought he would. For the first time he realized just how foolish he had been acting. He realized how he had been blindly chasing after a girl without ever considering what anyone else was thinking. Daisuke nodded. "Congratulations. Once Lady Kamiya hears this she's going to be practically flying with all that energy she has."  
  
Takeru chuckled lightly. He looked out the window, and a metallic glint caught his eye. TK tried to focus in on it, but knew instantly it was nothing good when Aquillamon started flying towards it angrily. "Get down," the blonde lord shouted. He quickly grabbed one of Tai's tower shields leaning against the wall and held it up to the window. Almost instantly, a hard thud was heard as an arrow landed in the wooden face of the shield. Had TK not reacted as he did, the arrow would have sailed through the window and struck the half-conscious Taichi.  
  
Jyou got up form the floor looking worried. "This is bad," he said solemnly.  
  
"You were right," Tai said, his voice faint. They all watched Aquillamon pick up a humanoid figure in his talons and proceed to disembowel the unfortunate attacker in mid-flight. "They know. This time, they're going to kill me out right. No slow sadism like this poison. They want the job done."  
  
"That means," Daisuke said before pausing, his eyes going wide.  
  
"The others," Takeru exclaimed. "My brother! Yamato!"  
  
******************************  
  
Mimi began chanting. Several more fireballs had struck recently and dodging them was getting harder and harder. The magician girl's eyes glowed a dazzling green light and she placed her hands on Garurumon's ribs.  
  
The wolf digimon felt an incredible surge of energy and began running faster than ever, his lungs untiring.  
  
"Why didn't you do that earlier," Matt asked, or rather shouted over the wind. He was slightly annoyed, but very curious.  
  
"I can only do that spell so many times a day. It grants the subject a temporary burst of life energy, but it wears off after a short period of time, so I usually save it for when I need it," Mimi explained.  
  
"Mimi," Palmon shouted. "The fields aren't far from here. This speed burst is going to shave about twenty minutes off of our journey.  
  
"Good," Sora shouted. "Every minute helps."  
  
"Sora," Biyomon called. "I can see the fields off in the distance. Palmon was right, we'll be there soon." The bird digimon took a quick look around for more fireballs or any other dangers. "I'm ready to digivolve at your word."  
  
******************************  
  
Jyou sighed as he replaced Tai's bandage again. "We have about two and one half hours left. I wouldn't get your spirits up."  
  
Hikari sighed. She took over for Davis who was now patrolling the palace. She leaned her head against Takeru's shoulder and watched her brother sadly.  
  
Tai turned his rich brown eyes to his sister and future brother-in-law. A weak smile crossed his lips. "Father would be proud. He probably is very proud of you two, watching from the heavens."  
  
"Lord Taichi," Joe ordered, "try not to speak. You need all of your strength."  
  
Kari just wiped a few more tears from her cheeks. She felt so helpless. All of her magic, her alchemical lab, her shelves upon shelves of tomes and spellbooks and the only thing she could do for her brother was a pain-killer that numbed the burning sensation caused by the poison. She frowned as she saw the ugly purple color had almost completely enveloped Taichi's upper body, tendrils of the unnatural color creeping up his face like sadistic claws.  
  
Takeru put an arm around Hikari's shoulders and she leaned into him.  
  
Tai smiled "Hey, tonight's not a comlpete loss," he chuckled. "You two finally gave your hearts to each other." Taichi looked back up at the ceiling. He was trying to be optimistic, though was resigned to the fact that he may die in a few hours. "Though I'm not ready to be an uncle yet," he chuckled. "You better wait a couple years, you two." His protective side couldn't help surfacing with his attempt at humor.  
  
"Lord Taichi," Jyou scolded. "For the last time: Don't speak. Conserve your strength." The blue-haired healer sighed. He had some difficult patients before, but this was getting very frustrating.  
  
*************************  
  
Finally, the field came into view. Thousands upon thousands of blood red flowers resembling a dragon's toothy maw (AN: Kinda like snapdragons on steroids.). Mimi and Palmon wasted no time and hopped off Garurumon, immediately grabbing as many blossoms as possible. Sora was quick to follow, shoveling the flowers into the satchel she carried while trying not to spill the nectar. Matt hopped off of his digimon partner as he devolved back to Gabumon and the two of them started helping to gather the flowers.  
  
Biyomon soared in circles overhead, ready to digivolve in an instant. Suddenly, she spotted something. A flash in the distance, and a streak of light that seemed to be getting close. "The fireballs," she cried out.  
  
All heads jerked to where Biyomon was pointing. Indeed a fireball was fast approaching. It would either strike them, or burn the fields. The three humans filled their satchels and Yamato and Mimi handed theirs to Sora, hoping they had enough flowers as there was no more time. Everyone managed to dive away just as the fireball struck and razed the fields.  
  
Mimi and Palmon watched with horror as the forest around the fields began to burn. Mimi raised her staff and began an incantation. A sphere of water formed in front of her and erupted into a constantly flowing torrent of cold blue water.  
  
Meanwhile, Biyomon had digivolved to Birdramon and was now carrying Sora on her back, flying as fast as she possibly could.  
  
The two remaining digimon and humans stomped out the last burning embers and watched the increasingly small image of Birdramon vanish over the horizon. "It's all in their hands now," Gabumon said.  
  
Matt nodded solemnly and looked over at Mimi. She and Palmon were looking over the damage to the surrounding woodlands with misty eyes. The blond bard sighed. He didn't know why, but it was especially painful to see Mimi so unhappy. "We better get going. If we hussle on foot we should make it back to the palace by dinner next week."  
  
Mimi, turned to Yamato. She knew he was trying to lighten the situation, but right now, she just couldn't will herself to smile. The magician girl just nodded looked at his smiling face. She simply walked over to him and leaned against him, much to the young lord's surprise. She didn't care at the moemnt. Mimi just wanted the comfort of another human being.  
  
Gabumon walked over to Palmon and put one of his big paws on her shoulder. "Let's get going. Standing here isn't going to do any good."  
  
Palmon nodded, losing herself for a minute in Gabumon's eyes. He and Matt always had the ability to comfort people. "You're right. We have to get back and see if Sora and Birdramon made it on time."  
  
*************************  
  
It was only another hour until dawn as Takeru looked down at the floor with his arms crossed over his chest. No one had spoken in so long and it was beginning to work on his nerves.  
  
Jyou changed the bandage yet again as the minutes seemed to drag by. He looked at the discoloration creeping across Taichi's body and grimaced. It was worse than ever, now, engulfing almost all of his body.  
  
The silence in the room was enough to chill someone down to the bones, and the time dragged by at a snail's pace. One can imagine the surprise everyone felt when Sora leaped through the window in the room, especially since the room itself was situated fifty feet above the ground. Biyomon flew in next as Sora tossed the bag of flowers to a still shocked Joe. "Here's the flowers hurry cure him now we're going to lose him!!" Sora ran off several sentences at once without pause, moving slow enough so that only individual words could be distiguished from one another.  
  
Jyou shook his head to clear it and immediately opened the pack. There were more than enough flowers and he immediately got to work pouring the nectar onto a previously prepared bandage with a thick red paste covering one side. The nectar from the blossoms turned the paste to a brilliant purple color, nothing at all like the unnatural color invading Taichi's body, but a soothing shade like the sky during twilight in mid-spring.  
  
Tai cracked a weak smile. "Sora," he said his voice barely audible. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."  
  
Sora's eyes were soaked with tears. She couldn't stand seeing him like this. It was hurting her deep down in her bossom and she could feel her heart scream as he did when Jyou placed the antidote on his wound.  
  
Taichi began thrashing his head form side to side as he felt the twilight paste burn as it seeped into his wound. The pain was too great and he passed out. Almost immediately, before anyone could even gasp at seeing the brown-haired lord on pain and question whether or not the antidote worked, the unnatural discoloration began to vanish from the wound out. Lord Taichi Kamiya was going to live.  
  
End of Chapter 4  
  
In Legacy of Digita Chapter 5- Prophecies, Taichi has made a full recovery. He speaks to his mother about his father's amulet and the answer she gives him results in the unmasking of an ancient secret of the royal houses that started with Jubei Yagami and a man named Gennai. What could this secret possibly be? What did Jubei and Gennai start so long ago? The answers lie in the next chapter. 


	5. Prophecies

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Author's Notes: Picking up a little on the couples in this chapter. Also, I'm proud to announce, that here, in chapter 5, we finally have a plot! (nods, waves, and cheers all around)  
  
  
Chapter 5- Prophecies  
  
  
Taichi awoke to see the sun rising outside his window. The first thing the young lord noticed was the absence of pain. He looked at his bare chest and saw the discoloration was gone. When Tai looked at his arm where the arrow had struck, the wound was almost completely healed. In a few days it would be just another scar. The memories came back to him as he looked around the room. He saw his mother, his best friend Matt, his sister Hikari, Takeru, Mimi, Augumon, his squire Davis, Jyou; all asleep sitting in chairs and leaning on each other in various odd positions. To his immediate left, he saw her. Sora. She was sititng beside his bed with her head resting against the wall, sound asleep. Gradually, everything came rushing back. The night of the masquerade, his dance with Sora, the attack... Lord Kamiya's murderer. Taichi got up out of bed, trying not to wake anybody. He slipped on his boots and an open buttonless vest. He needed a moment alone.  
  
************************  
  
Sora woke up to find Taichi missing. At first she panicked. Where did he go? What happened to him? Then she noticed his boots were missing. "He must have woken up and left," the amazon thought out loud. At first, she couldn't help but smile at the thought that Taichi was recovering, but then Sora got up and frowned. "Stupid Tai. He should still be in bed. Doesn't he know to listen to the doctor's orders?" She quickly left the room to go look for the brown-haired lord, several different reasons going through her mind.  
  
It wasn't long before she came out to the palace gardens and saw Lord Taichi by the statue of Jubei Yagami. He was practicing with two handaxes, apparently only having been doing so for a short while as he hadn't broken a sweat. Sora was about to walk up to him and give him a tongue-lashing (AN: Get your mind out of the sewer!) for getting out of bed in the middle of the night when one of his axes was loosed from his hand and imbedded itself in the trunk of the tree she was standing next to.  
  
Tai's eyes widened in horror as he realized Sora was there and how clsoe he had come to accidentally killing her. "S-sora?" He dropped his other axe to the ground and ran to her. "What in the world are you doing here?"  
  
Sora got over the shock and turned to scowl at Taichi. "I could ask you the same question," she shot back.  
  
"What," he asked.  
  
"What are you doing out of bed," the amazon demanded.  
  
"I-"  
  
"Don't interrupt me! That was a rhetorical question."  
  
"But-"  
  
"No excuses! You haven't fully recovered. You've been asleep for three days, but you aren't completely healed yet."  
  
"Wha-"  
  
"And just what do you think you're doing, leaving your room without telling us? Another assassin could attack you!"  
  
"Well I-"  
  
"Look me in the eye when I'm scolding you!"  
  
"But i jus-"  
  
"And another thing-" This time Sora was cut off as Taichi placed two fingers upon her lips. She was too surprised to react.  
  
"Shut up for a second and let me apologize," Tai smiled. He lifted his fingers from her lips. "I'm sorry. I just needed some time to myself, and I guess I acted without thinking."  
  
Sora just smiled back. "Stupid Tai," she said affectionately. "What was it you wanted to tell me the other night?"  
  
"This." With that, the brown-haired knight dipped his head down and gave Sora a soft kiss on the cheek, causing both of them to turn bright red. Tai was mentally kicking himself, as he had meant to kiss her on the lips. Why had he stopped at the last second and kissed only her cheek? Still, it was a start.  
  
"Lord Taichi!" Cray's voice sounded throughout the gardens, causing Tai and Sora to groan in frustration at the strange deja vu.  
  
Cray came running up and hugged Tai like a son. "Lord Taichi, you're alive! You had everyone scared to death!"  
  
Tai tried to realease himself from his servant's suprisingly strong arms. "Cray, relax! I'm alright now. I'm going back to my chambers. Please have my mother sent to my room as soon as possible. I must speak with her." The young knight finally managed to free himself and sighed as he left without another word.  
  
Sora watched him go, remembering the events from the battle the other night. She couldn't blame him for being upset, but he was being foolish to go wandering around after an attack was made on his life.  
  
************************  
  
Taichi was laying face up in his bed, his father's shield amulet clutched tightly in his one hand.  
  
Lady Kamiya began speaking. "It began long ago when Odaiba was first made a kingdom by Jubei Yagami," she said. "One of Jubei's greatest friends was the prophet Gennai. Gennai said one day that there would be twenty-four, twelve humans and twelve digimon, who would be blessed upon birth as 'digi-destined.'  
  
"Of course, no one knew what he meant at the time. Gennai said the digi-destined would find the lost city of Digita, birthplace of the first digimon. Legends have always spoken of Digita and the mysterious Legacy it contains, but no one ever found it. Some people even called Gennai a false prophet for speaking of such a 'faery tale.'  
  
"But Jubei believed Gennai. In a hidden area of the palace, the two inscribed the prophecy in its entirety and hid it. The shield amulet that has been handed down through our family for generations is the key to unlocking the hidden chamber containing the prophecy."  
  
Taichi looked to the metal amulet in his hand. It displayed the crest of Odaiba: a sun, crescent moon, and eight-point star in a triangular pattern underneath an arch which was inscribed with nine runes representing courage, love, friendship, sincerity, knowledge, reliability, kindness, hope, and light, in order. "Mother, I don't understand." Tai traced his finger along the amulet and looked back to his mother.  
  
"Well," Lady Kamiya began. "Your father said that he had read the prophecy once himself, and he believes that you, Hikari, and the sons of Ishida are four of the digi-destined. He never explained it to me, but that is what he said."  
  
Taichi lay in bed, speechless, trying to take all of this in.  
  
"To see the prophecy," Lady Kamiya continued, "insert the amulet into the crest at the foot of Jubei Yagami's statue."  
  
"I think I'll do just that."  
  
************************  
  
Taichi stood in front of the statue of his ancestor, Jubei. At the base of the statue was the kingdom's crest. He inserted his father's amulet upon it, and a click was heard. The young knight backed up as he heard a grinding noise. Soon, the statue shifted away, revealing a hidden staircase. Taichi gulped nervously and descended.  
  
************************  
  
Izzy and Yolie were in the palace library reading over their notes on digimon when Taichi came. "Izzy, Yolei. I need some help. Do you understand ancient runic Draconic?"  
  
"Of course," Yolie replied.  
  
"Good. come with me."  
  
************************  
  
It was a similar story with Yamato, Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Sora, Mimi, Jyou, Iori, and all the digimon. Taichi guided them all down the stairs underneath the statue into a large underground chamber. The room was lit by a strange phosphorescent moss, giving it a dream-like appearance. On the far wall was a giant inscription in ancient runes. "This is the prophecy I told you about on the way here. I only understood a handful of the runes, but I knew enough of them to get my suspicions up. When Izzy and Yolie translated for me, I knew just how my father felt."  
  
"What do you mean Tai," Cody asked.  
  
"Koushiro, please read the prophecy."  
  
Izzy cleared his throat and began reading the runes which were arranged going top to bottom. "Twenty-four in all, twelve humans, twelve digimon; Shall find Digita, they'll be the ones." Izzy looked up. "Rather interesting how they made this so that when it is translated into the common dialect it forms a rhyme, but I digress."  
  
"Go on," Taichi urged.  
  
"First is the Bearer of Courage, the master of blades; A natural leader and lord of flames.  
  
"The Bearer of Love, amazon of the winds; Will capture the leader's heart and show the fury of wind.  
  
"The crest of Friendship shall belong to; The loreweaver who commands song and the icy blue.  
  
"Sincerity is the virtue of the woodlands girl; Friendship is her mate, her ally the natural world.  
  
"The Bearer of Knowledge is a genius young man; Quick-thinking and resourcfeul, he always has a plan.  
  
"Reliability is the strength to a healer of men; He who never gives up, and always shall mend.  
  
"The Bearer of Hope comes forth with spirit and blade; His will of steel shall not be unmade.  
  
"Bearer of Light is always with Hope shining bright; She casts her magic where once there was plight."  
  
Izzy paused at this time. "The rhyming could have been better, but I suppose it is difficult to try and write something in one laguage so that the translation in a particular language rhymes."  
  
"Well, take a moment before you continue," Tai said. He turned to the others. "Does any of this sound familiar to any of you?"  
  
There was a long silence. No one spoke up. They knew what the brown-haired knight was talking about, but they didn't dare say anything. It was just too outlandish to be real.  
  
"This prophecy just described eight of us," Taichi finally said, getting annoyed by the silence. "'Master of blades.' I'm a master-at-arms. 'Amazon of the winds; capture the leader's heart.' If that doesn't describe Sora, please tell me what does." The brown-haired lord then turned pink slightly, realizing what he had just said. He looked over at Sora who was also blushing, though with a smile on her face and her thoughts running faster than lightning with joy.  
  
"Tai, as much as I would love to have a little fun with what you just blurted out, I think you're right. This is serious." Matt folded his amrs over his chest and glanced at Mimi. He was turning her section of the prophecy over in his head 'Friendship is her mate,' he thought. 'I do feel rather attracted to her, but this is just a touch... confusing. And besides, that statement in the prophecy could mean any number of things. I'm not sure what is going on anymore.'  
  
Mimi was trying hard not to look at Matt. She was having a similiar line of thought and didn't know what to think. 'Yamato really is a wonderful person, but am I really growing to like him like that? I wish I could be anywhere but here right now.'  
  
"I guess you could describe me as reliable," Jyou said. He felt the tension growing in the air, and decided that if no one else was going to break the silence, he better do it. He was certainly reliable.  
  
Everyone saw the irony of the situation and couldn't help but smile as things seemed less heavy on their shoulders.  
  
"Finish reading the prophecy, please," Tai said.  
This time, Miyako picked up where Koushiro left off. "A second generation will come to bear; The crests of all, three holding a pair.  
  
"The warrior of Friendship and Courage stands tall; He has much bravado, but a good heart after all.  
  
"Love and Sincerity to a girl who speaks with the sky; She never fears to spread her wings and speak her mind.  
  
"Knowledge and Reliability belong to a small boy with a pure heart; He never disappoints and from his friends he will never part.  
  
"The Bearer of Kindness will have a fall from grace; Living an outlaw, he handles the world at his own pace.  
  
"With digimon to bind them as one, the world shall be spared; When darkness falls and all living things are scared.  
  
"The digi-destined together they shall be; These twenty-four shall find Digita and its Legacy." Yolie turned to the others, knowing as well as they did the gravity of the situation.  
  
Taichi folded his arms and looked around. "The prophecy continues to tell us where the crests of these virtues can be found. Unfortunately, Courage and Friendship are said to be in Florisenn'Dulhai."  
  
Matt looked over at Tai. "Marvelous. This just keeps getting better and better," he said sarcastically.  
  
"Isn't that an elven kingdom south of here," Cody asked. His normally quiet voice was maginified a little by the cave and everyone could hear him.  
  
"Yes," Tai replied. "Ever since Odaiba was founded by Jubei Yagami, the elves and our people have shared a shaky alliance. Ever tried talking to an elf before?" The question was rhetorical so the young knight continued. "They're very arrogant, aloof, and regal. You really have to know what you're doing to talk to one."  
  
"They're not an easy audience to please, either," Matt added.  
  
"Well what are we waiting for," Davis practically shouted. "If we really are destined like the prophecy says, then let's go!"  
  
"It's not that simple," Koushiro said. "We're missing one digi-destined: the Bearer of Kindness. And besides that, how can we be entirely sure we are the ones the prophecy describes. You have to admit, it is rather vague."  
  
"Izzy has a point," Yolie said out loud. "Although it looks like we're the ones, we can't be entirely sure."  
  
"Well," Sora started, "we may never know unless we try." She then smiled. "Besides, I'd like to meet some elves. I hear they have the finest bows in the world."  
  
The digimon had all been quiet up to this point. They knew of the prophet Gennai and when they heard the word "Digita" they all fell silent.  
  
"Are you alright," Tai questioned them.  
  
"Sorry," Augumon said, snapping out of his trance. "But we all were staying silent to show respect to Digita."  
  
"I understand," Mimi said, pulling Palmon into a hug. "You digimon must feel a certain reverance toward the lost city."  
  
Gomamon nodded. "That's right. I think there's something to this prophecy and I want to go see if we really are the digimon who will rediscover Digita."  
  
"It's a little hard to swallow," Armadillomon said, "but I'm willing to put all bets on it at the flip of a coin."  
  
"Then it's settled," Tai said firmly. "In two days we leave for Florisenn'Dulhai."  
  
*************************  
  
As promised, the twenty-two humans and digimon left the palace two days later, set for a trip south the elven forests. The day they left was warm, but dark clouds were hovering in the sky and everyone drew their cloaks tight while Taichi and Yamato gave the crew a short lesson in the basics of the elven tongue and etiquette so they would know how to act when presenting themselves.  
  
The first night passed without event and they marched on shortly before dawn. It was approaching nightfall when they stumbled upon a dark scene. Several covered wagons lay on the road over-turned and ruined. There were footprints everywhere, several arrows stcuk in the ground and trees, broken weapons, and a myriad of bones lay scattered about. Everyone stared in horror. "What happened here," Miyako asked. "Were the people in the convoy attacked by bandits? Or wolves?"  
  
"No, not wolves," Mimi said. "A wolf wouldn't do something like this even with its pack. I fear it's something much more sinister."  
  
Takeru walked up to the scene. He placed his boots within a set of tracks of similar size and began stepping through them, reenacting the movements of whoever made the prints. "There was a struggle here. They fought back, though unsuccessfully it would seem." He scanned the ground and each print. "There were five people... and four attackers. The attackers were bipedal, wore no footwear, and had claws on their hands and feet." TK then began reenacting the possible movements of the attackers, taking jerking, hapazard steps trying to follow the tracks. He surveyed the scene further. "These bones belong to humans, probably made by wolves who decided to capitalize on the travelers' misfortune. Unless..." He grabbed a handful of the sandy earth from one of the attacker's footprints and holding it in his fist, sniffed twice. He scowled and threw the soil to the ground.  
  
Everyone stared at TK, waiting for his answer. They were not surprised by his skill, as they all knew he was one of the best trackers alive. The tension in the air was mounting. Everyone dreaded the grim look on the blonde lord's face, but also wanted to know what was going on.  
  
"These poor souls. This attack was made not by a pack of wolves, but of ghouls," he said solemnly.  
  
A collective gasp rose from everyone else. Of all of them, only Taichi, Augumon, and Patamon had ever seen and fought ghouls before besides Takeru. Everyone else had only heard how vile and evil the undead were.  
  
"That's not the half of it," Takeru said grimly. "The attack was made this morning. Four ghouls of about the same size and weight as Tai, two of them armed. They're probably nearby."  
  
"Then let's get out of here," Patamon squeaked. "I've fought ghouls before, and I have no desire to do it again any time soon."  
  
No sooner had Patamon spoke, than the four hideous ghouls leaped forward from the underbrush, apparently lying in wait for more victims. They were terrible to behold. Thin and gaunt, looking emaciated with skin stretched tight over their bones and the same disgusting purple color as a severe bruise. Their eyes were black, but full of feral cunning nad hunger. They wore only tattered clothes and no footwear showing the gnarled talons on their feet that matched the ones at the ends of their fingers. One of them had a few patches of dirty white hair on his scalp while the others were bald. They had long sharp teeth and snakelike black tongues that kept flopping and slithering around outside of their gaping mouths. Two of the ghouls held a rusty dagger each.  
  
Taichi was the first to react, drawing his longsword and lopping off the armed hand of the hgoul closest to him with a quick upward slash, causing the undead to howl in pain.  
  
Gatomon lunged forward at another. "Lightning Claw," she shouted launching her attack. The swipe of her claws sent the ghoul flying back into a tree with a sickening crack as its spine broke. The creature fell to the ground bent in an unnatural angle, dead.  
  
Sora took the handaxe Tai had given her that morning, took aim, and let it fly at the second armed ghoul. The blade spun rapidly through the air before landing in the creature's face with a sickening thud. The ghoul didn't even have time to cry out before it died. Dark blood began flowing from the undead's split face before it could even hit the ground.  
  
Biyomon was about to go over and help Tai defeat his adversary, when her legs were grabbed from behind by the fourth ghoul. She felt its talons sinking into her wing as he tried to fly away. The bird digimon cried out in pain and fell to the ground.  
  
With a quick lash of another axe, Sora beheaded the one-handed undead she and Tai were fighting and turned to see biyomon in trouble. "Oh no! Biyomon!"  
  
Everyone turned to face the scene just as the ghoul's chest erupted forward in a spray of dark, rotting gore. As the monster fell dead, everyone was shocked to see Augumon standing there behind its body with his claws still extended forawrd and soaked in blood. "No one hurts my friends," the digimon said dangerously.  
  
Taichi was the least surprised, but still stunned. Augumon rarely showed his violent side unless he had digivolved to Greymon. But there the little lizard digimon was, glaring at the ghoul's corpse, wiping the creatures rotting flesh from his claws. And as quickly as Augumon's violence appeared, it faded as he gently helped Biyomon up, looking sadly at her injured wing.  
  
Sora rushed up and looked at her digimon partner's wounds. "Oh, Biyomon are you alright?"  
  
"Yes, Sora," Biyomon said. "I'm alright now. Thank you, Augumon."  
  
Augumon simply smiled as only he could. "You would have done the same for me."  
  
"Hey," Takeru called out. "We better get moving. Where you find a pack of ghouls, there's bound to be more undead lurking around. Getting killed isn't a very big priority on my list of things to do."  
  
"My sentiments exactly," Miyako said.  
  
**************************  
  
Two days later, the group arrived in a grand forest of silver trees with lush golden leaves. They had reached the forest of Dulhai, home of the high elves. The sun refelcted off the silver and gold trees with aching beauty while the underbrush glittered like emeralds. According to the elven legends, this forest was created millennia ago by the gods. They created Dulhai from the purest gold, gems, and the beaitful elven silver called mithril. It was easy to believe. The forest itself possessed not just this dazzling beauty, but a sense of life radiating from it. As the humans and digimon stepped into the forest, it was like bathing in joy and life, like a warm blanket had been wrapped around them and touched their very souls with the wonders this ancient forest held. A small breeze rustled through the treetops, creating a pleasant sound as the leaves shuffled and danced on the wind and the many tiny birds took flight. The immersion in natural beauty was intoxicating, especially for Mimi, Palmon, and Takeru, who all seemed to be off in a dream world.  
  
Suddenly, a tall figure appeared dressed in pastel blues with a flowing deep purple cape, seemingly from nowhere. He had long silver hair like the trees and skin pale as the moon. Long, delicately pointed ears poked out from his hair and his amber eyes seemed to be smiling just as his lips were. There was no mistaking who this individual was. Only one race of people were so fair and graceful. He was a high elf of Florisenn'Dulhai, the long-lived people of the forests. "Welcome, travellers," he said. However, only Taichi and Yamato understood him, as they were the only ones in the party who understood the complex and melodic elven laguage.  
  
"We are from Odaiba. I am Lord Taichi Kamiya, but introuctions must wait," Tai said in fluent Elven. "We have come to see the King Luusullis. Can you take us to the palace?"  
  
The silver-haired elf bowed deeply. "Certainly," he said, this time in common speak which everyone could understand. "I am one of the royal scouts. You may call me Amrufel. Please, follow me." The elf turned and began striding through the woods so quickly, it took everyone an extra effort to keep up. They were all amazed with the other-wordly balance and grace the elf possessed, as one must see these qualities which all elves are born with before you can believe them.  
  
In a little longer than two hours, they finally reached a grand city built in the trees. Platforms high in the mithril and gold trees stretched wide with bridges and walkways connecting them. The buildings atop were crafted entirely of wood with very little stone. Dozens of elves walked through the raised city, engaging in their daily business. Had it been any other day, many more of the fair folk would be seen, but today was the day each week when elves left their jobs early to stay home with their families. Amrufel led them to a large platform at the base of the nearest tree. He sounded a small gong on one end of the platform and it lifted them all up into the city. "Come," their guide said as htey walked into the city. "The palace isn't far."  
  
Amrufel was right, since a grand palace of mithril, marble, and the silver wood of the trees came before them after a short walk. They went past the guards into a grand hall with stone-tiled floors white as snow with many beautiful tapestries hanging on the wall depicting scenes from elven lore. "Stay here in the entrace hall until the guards call you into the throne room to meet with his majesty Luusullis." With that, the silver-haired elf left, his purple cape streaming out behind him.  
  
Yolei giggled as she watched the retreating elf and turned to Kari. "I see those stories about elves being so handsome are true."  
  
Kari giggled in return and glanced over at TK who gave her a playful look of mock jealousy.  
  
It wasn't much longer before an elven guard, taller than Amrufel, at least six and one-half feet, with chain armor and a sword came walking in. Like all elves, he grew his hair very long, but kept it tied back in a ponytail to make fighting easier. "The King will see you now," he said in Elven. He turned, gesturing for them to follow him and walked down the halls to a pair of enromous red double doors. Two other guards stationed there opened the doors to reveal a grand white room full of fountains, statuary, paintings, tapestries, and potted plants. At the other end of the room sat King Luusullis. He was about the same height as Taichi clad in royal purple robes. He had golden hair grown down to his ankles and braided with silver ribbons. He had sky blue eyes and fair skin, and like most elves he looked perpetually youthful, though the length of his pointed ears indicated that he was coming to the final centuries of his life span, for elves live over a millennia and never show any physical aging. The only way to guess an elf's age without asking is to check the length of hteir ears. The longer, the older they are.  
  
Taichi, Yamato, Augumon, and Gabumon walked into the hall first. Tai had told the others to proceed when he called them forward for introductions. "Your majesty," the two humans and two digimon said, down on one knee. They said the words slowly, drawing out the syllables as was proper when standing before elven royalty.  
  
Luusulis rose from his throne, gestured for them to do the same, and walked to the four in front of him. He embraced them all in a single hug as if they were family "Welcome my friends," he said warmly in common speak. "Lord Taichi and Yamato. I haven't seen you two since Lady Hikari and Lord Takeru were born. My you two certainly have grown quickly. And of course Augumon nad Gabumon. Last I saw you two, you had only just matured to your present forms."  
  
"King Luusulis," Tai began, "I would like to introduce you to friends and family. You know my sister, the Lady Hikari with her bonded digimon Gatomon."  
  
"And my brother," Matt continued, "Lord Takeru with Patamon."  
  
The four stepped forward towards the elf king, kneeling down and greeting him as their older brothers and their digimon did.  
  
"Oh you can dispense with the formalities around me," Luusulis chuckled. "The royal houses of Odaiba and any of their friends will always be welcomed in the court of Florisenn'Dulhai as long as I rule." He bid everyone to rise and embraced the four younger siblings and digimon. "I haven't seen you four since you were but babes in your respective mothers' arms." He pulled away a little and looked them over. "Yes. Takeru, you are becoming a fine young man like your brother. Is it true that you are betrothed to Hikari?"  
  
Takeru nodded with a faint blush, hoping that his silence would not be taken as an insult.  
  
However, the elf king simply turned to Hikari and smiled. "You are quite a lucky man. It is very rare that a human woman is born so clsoe to elven fairness. And if half the sotries I have heard are true, then she is every bit as compassionate and kind as she is lovely."  
  
Hikari smiled and looked away as her face turned the same shade of red as her robes. "Thank you, your majesty."  
  
Luussulis then knelt down and stroked one hand over Patamon's back and scratched Gatomon behind her ears. "I never got a chance to know you two. A digimon is always welcome in the royal court and I hope during your visit I can get better aquainted with you."  
  
The two digimon smiled as they looked up at the king. "We would be honored, sir," Patamon squeaked.  
  
"Your majesty," Yamato said. "Taichi and I have several more people and digimon to introduce to you."  
  
They next brought in Sora, Biyomon, Mimi, and Palmon. The girls were complimented similarly to Hikari and their digimon were also treated like old firends instead of new aquaintances. Then came Daisuke, Jyou, Iori, and their respective digimon partners who were given warm greetings. Luusulis embraced them all one by one like family. "So," the elf king said, "what is the nature of your visit?"  
  
Tai stepped forward. "We have recently read an ancient prophecy by the old soothsayer known as Gennai concerning the fabled city of Digita."  
  
Luusulis raised his hand. "Say no more. I know now of why you are here. We will discuss it over a banquet tonight. In the meantime, you look a bit scuffled so let's get you cleaned up."  
  
No one had time to ask what Luusulis meant or how he knew of the prophecy before two dozen elven servants came in and guided the humans and digimon to changing rooms in the east wing of the palace.  
  
End of Chapter 5  
  
In Legacy of Digita Chapter 6- First Crests Discovered, Taichi goes off with Yamato and Daisuke to find the crests of Courage and Friendship hidden within the forests of Dulhai. Will they find them, or will they get more than they bargained for? And are the assassins ready for another round at Taichi's life? The only way to find out is to keep reading. 


	6. First Crests Discovered

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Author's Notes: I would like to apologize to all my readers for that huge plot hole in chapter 5 where I forgot to put Izzy nad Yolei in the introductions to the king. Also, several people are begging me to change the Mimi pairing but I've already got the general outline for the rest of the story planned out and changing that now is probably going to end up being more trouble than it's worth in the long run. For those of you aren't overly fond of the pairing but still like the story, thank you. I've read good stories with couplings I didn't like too much before, but I went through them anyway because I liked the story. Thank you and let's continue with this fic.  
  
  
Chapter 6- First Crests Discovered  
  
  
Everyone was seated in the beatiful roofless dining hall with hundreds of plates of expertly prepared food before them and dozens of smiling elven servants who were very eager to please. Biyomon had her wing treated by Jyou and several elves and already she was feeling much better. Luusulis insisted that Taichi and Yamato sit with him at the end of the table so they could tell him all about what had been happening in Odaiba since he last visited. The elf king was saddened to hear of the death of Lord Kamiya but nodded his approval that Hessianmon paid for his sins.  
  
Miyako was sitting between Hikari and Amrufel and when not conversing with the lady of the house of Kamiya, she was talking with the elf scout.  
  
Amrufel simply laughed as the conversation took an interesting turn when she asked what he liked in women. "I think I'm a little old for you," he said, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Elves, for all their aloofness and arrogance, did possess a sense of empathy. "You see, I'm two hundred and forty-seven years old according to human calendars. That's about twenty-four in human years."  
  
Miyako just blinked rapidly several times and turned to face Koushiro who was sitting beside Amrufel and trying hard to laugh, though unsuccessfully. "That isn't funny, Izzy." She was beginning to turn pink, realizing she forgot just how long elves live.  
  
Luusulis then cleared his throat and stood. "Guests, friends, and family," he shouted, and the hall fell silent. "The time of Gennai's final prophecy has arrived! The Bearers of Courage and Friendship have arrived to claim their crests!"  
  
The room erupted in cheers that shook the boughs of the trees high above them. They fell silent again as the king raised his hand.  
  
"As we all know, the crests of Friendship and Courage are hidden deep within Dulhai's woods and only the digi-destined can find them. Unfortunately, the gods may have given us the bounties of our mithril and gold forest, but they also gave the land its dangers which we must overcome." He paused for a moment nad looked aorund. "It is for this reason, that I will assign Taichi Kamiya, Yamato Ishida, and Daisuke Motomiya a guide to take them to the heart of our grand forest to find their destiny without being waylaid." Again, Luusulis paused and looked around the hall. "The guide will be one of my royal scouts for they know Dulhai's land like the backs of their blades."  
  
Several elves smirked haughtily, obviously scouts thinking they would be chosen. Two of them even adjusted their doublets and made ready stand.  
  
"The elf I have chosen," Luusulis said, "is young Amrufel of the house of Crystalwind." He smiled over at Amrufel who sat dumbfounded.  
  
"But your majesty," the silver-haired elf started, "surely there is someone better for this job." Many elves, now scowling nodded in agreement though not out of sympathy.  
  
The king shook his head, still smiling. "Amrufel, you have only served me for a century, but in that time you have never failed your people. The time has come for you to prove yourself as the heir to the Crystalwind house. Your father was my bodyguard when I was a boy and the finest I ever had." Luusulis walked over to the still-stunned scout, put his hands on his shoulders, and lifted him to his feet. "Now is your chance to show the strength in your bloodline."  
  
Amrufel nodded. Family honor was extremely important to the high elves, and once they were challenged to prove the worth of their family's blood, they would never back down even from certain death. "As you command, your majesty. As Amrufel, son of Xirofel, heir to the bloodline of Crystalwind, accept this as my duty to my people and the world we love."  
  
The hall exploded with applause and cheers. Two particularly old elves, presumably Amrufel's parents, made their applause and shouts heard above all others as the sun began to set and the night sky slowly stretched across the open hall.  
  
***************************  
  
The morning was cold and foggy. The rain had fallen last night and left behind a heavy layer of mist. Amrufel stood at the lift with Tai and Matt, waiting for Davis to arrive. This was something the humans had to do themselves. The digimon would fulfill their parts when the time came, but for now the crests had to be found. They had to wait over half of an hour before Davis came dashing up, still trying get his bandolier and sword over his back.  
  
"You're late," Amrufel, slightly annoyed. "We should have set out a while ago."  
  
"I'm sorry," Daisuke panted. "I couldn't find my sword."  
  
Yamato lifted a single eyebrow. "How can you miss it," he asked. "It's about five feet long."  
  
Taichi just chuckled and said "You obviously don't know Davis as well as I do. He can lose anything, anywhere, any time."  
  
Davis turned a little pink in emberassment, knowing his master was right. "Can we just get going?"  
  
Amrufel nodded and the four of them descended on the lift. The journey passed for two hours uneventfully deeper and deeper into Dulhai. Amrufel guided them unfailingly through thick underbrush, rocky slopes, and rolling hills. The group came to a river, which the elf said was only waist-deep at its lowest point. Taichi, Yamato, and Daisuke stripped down to their drawers and started to cross the river carrying their clothes and gear over their heads.  
  
"Amrufel," Yamato said to their guide, who still hadn't made any attempt to cross the river, "why aren't you crossing?"  
  
The elf smiled. "Merely waiting for you three, sir." With that, he threw open his cloak and began running over the surface of the water with long strides. His soft mocassins didn't make a single ripple on the water and in seconds, Amrufel was on the opposite bank smiling. "Just something we elves are born with," he said, almost haughtily.  
  
The humans sighed and finished crossing the river. "Elves," Matt mused, "the only living beings on this world with more tricks up their sleeves than me."  
  
It wasn't much longer than another two hours before the group reached a great cave within a rising plateau. There was nothing malevolent about the appearance of the cave, but it was still unsettling.  
  
"This is it," Amrufel said. "You three must enter, for this is where Gennai told King Luusulis the crests were hidden in." The elf drew a longsword which hand been hidden by his cloak through the whole journey. The blade seemed to glow of its own pale light like the moon and many elven runes were etched into the hilt and the flat of the blade. "I will keep watch out here."  
  
Taichi nodded and descended into the caves with Yamato and Daisuke. It was not pitch dark as they had expected, for the walls of the cave glowed of their own light. As water dripped into small frigid pools and streams, the ripples glowed in a multitude of colors. Several stalagtites and stalagmites gave off faint glows of blue, white, and orange. Time within seemed to move at a snail's pace, and the three young men began to wonder if they were getting anywhere by going through here.  
  
Suddenly, a voice sounded from the depths of the caverns. "You are the bearers of Courage and Friendship," the voice echoed. It was monotone and genderless. "You may have the prizes you seek, but how to unlock the powers within is a question you must answer on your own." Soon, four shapes came flying out from the depths of the cavern. Two of the objects were small pendants bearing the runes of Courage and Friendship. These crests placed themselves upon the necks of Taichi and Yamato respectively. The other two objects were bizarre spiked eggs bearing Tai and Matt's crests, which guided themselves into Daisuke's hands. The three young men looked at their new treasures for a moment in wonder before saying a few words of thank you, though to what they were not sure, before departing.  
  
*************************  
  
They travelled back in silence. They had reached the stream from before when Amrufel stopped abruptly and darted his amber eyes from side to side, frowning. "There's something out there," he whispered. There was a collective ring as the group drew their swords. Seconds became hours as they waited with their breath held in their throats. Background noises such as the bubbling of the stream became deafening noise as they all strained their ears, but it seemed only the elven guide had any idea what they were against.  
  
It happened so abruptly, you could have missed it by blinking. Eight men came from seemingly nowhere, wearing body suits of silver to hide among the trees with masks that hid even their eyes behind yellow lenses. They all wore gauntlets with taloned figertips and carried serrated shortswords or knives. "We have come for Lord Taichi's life," one of them rasped. "You three were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." The assassins began advancing, waving their talons and blades menacingly.  
  
Taichi blocked an incoming downward slash to the head and made a thrust kick at the attacker's chest only to have his kick parried away by a punch from another assassin. Tai's balance was off-set but he responded by using his momentum from the parry to deliver a spin kick with the other foot to both assassins' heads, causing them to stagger backward.  
  
Amrufel began leaping in between the two assassins attacking him. The elf held a loose yet stable grip on his sword, twrling the weapon in deadly, yet graceful maneuvers. He spun the blade like a wheel and batted aside a thrust from an enemy sword. The elf then spun around and stabbed forward, impaling the attacker's right thigh. He pulled his sword back and spun three hundred and sixty degrees with his blade out at shoulder-length, blocking a stab from an assassin's talons and slitting the htroat of the one he had just wounded, causing a quick but powerful spray of blood from the man's jugular.  
  
Yamato gracefully dodged each trhust and slash made at him. His rapier wasn't designed to stand up to attacks such as these, so he instead relied on finesse. A quick swipe at one enemy's retreating arm, and he placed a large gash in the upper arm. Unfortunately, he was attacked from behind and dodged only just in time. What would have been a fatal injury was merely a shallow cut across the ribs.  
  
Daisuke was having some trouble. The assassins were just too fast for him and were quickly putting him on the defensive. Davis soon found an opening however, and stomped his foot down hard on one of his attacker's bent knees, causing him to howl in pain as the kneecap was practically crushed with a sickening pop. Daisuke lifted his greatsword and brought it down, striking the man's skull. The assassin hit the ground with his head cloven.  
  
Meanwhile, Tai leaned backward to avoid a stab to the chest. He flipped backward, kicking his attacker's jaw as his feet came up and quickly came back with a hard upward sweep. The attack found its mark and eviscerated the assassin, but his partner slashed at Taichi with his talons and managed to cut a deep wound in the knight's shoulder. Tai cried out in pain, but turned to face his attacker. He tossed his longsword to his good arm and swung it in a circular strike, which missed, followed by a swipe at the knees which succeeded in cutting one of the assassin's kneecaps with a small squirt of blood and clear fluid. The man fell to the ground, unable to stand and Taichi quickly took this chance to skewer him through the neck, causing a short but intense spray of gore.  
  
Yamato dropped into a split beneath simultaneous attacks from both assassins. He punched one as hard as he possibly could in the groin, and impaled the other through the stomach on his sowrd. Yamato rose quickly and slit the throat of the second attacker who was putting his hands gingerly to his abused groin.  
  
Amrufel easily side-stepped a thrust from the assassin's talons. He grabbed the man's extended arm by the wrist and quickly turned it to impale the assailant on his own talons. The attacker fell to the ground dead in a fetal position as blood quickly pooled around him.  
  
Daisuke twirled his greatsword in a massive figure-eight, keeping the final assassin back, and let the sword rest at the ground at his side and feigned fatigue. As the man came in for an attack, Davis retaliated by sweeping the sword low and cutting off the attacker's feet at the ankles. He fell to the ground screaming in pain before the young squire swung his blade down and decaptitated the assassin, spraying hte trees with a torrent blood for several seconds.  
  
Tai put a hand to his shoulder and kneeled down, gritting his teeth against the pain. "Marvelous," he said sarcastically. "We better get back soon. Jyou can patch this up in minutes but I don't want to lose more blood or let this get infected." The young lord quickly rubbed a couple fistfulls of dirt on his wound. He then stood up and was immediately assisted by his best friend Yamato.  
  
"Come one Tai," Matt said. "Just pull yourself together and trust Amrufel to get us back. We should consider ourselves lucky we got as few injuries as we did."  
  
**************************  
  
The group finally made it back to Florissen'Dulhai where everyone was treated for their injuries. Taichi was wounded the worst of all, but would make a quick recovery. The young knight decided to call a council with the other digi-destined and soon they were all seated in a large room around a circular table with no windows in the wall and only a chandalier for light.  
  
"I know now," Tai began, "that these attackers are professional assassins beyond the shadow of a doubt. They want me dead, but they have no qualms about killing whoever sides with me."  
  
"The attempts on your life began after your father gave you his amulet. Do you think the prophecy has something to do with it," Izzy asked.  
  
"Absolutely," Taichi responded. "Someone knows we are the digi-destined and they want to stop us. They're going after me because I was prophecized to be the leader."  
  
Jyou raised his hand. "Lord Taichi, Gomamon and I have seen wounds such as yours before. We know of the assassins you speak of."  
  
The room took on an eerie silence as all eyes were turned to Jyou and Gomamon. "Who are they," Sora asked after a long silence.  
  
"They call themselves the Ebon Brotherhood," Gomamon said. "They are a powerful guild of thieves, assassins, and mercenaries. They are one of the only two guilds that uses the Creeping Death poison that was used on Lord Taichi. However, they are the only ones who use gauntlets of the kind you spoke of."  
  
"Ive heard of them," Armadillomon said. "Once they take a job, they finish it. They aren't afraid of death and their elite members take powerful drugs to keep them from feeling pain."  
  
Cody nodded. "It's rumored that the mercenary known as The Raptor is one of their best."  
  
"Then we'll just have to be on our guard," Palmon said. "If these people aren't going to give up, then we just have to be ready to beat them."  
  
Mimi nodded. "Palmon's right. The only real way to stop the Ebon Brotherhood is to keep on fighting them whenever they come."  
  
"Now that we have our crests," Yamato said, gesturing ot himself, Taichi, and Daisuke, "it's guaranteed that they're going to pick up their efforts and try just as hard to kill me and Davis as they are Tai." The blond bard sighed and raked his fingers through his hair.  
  
"That's certainly a grim assesment," Izzy added.  
  
"To Hell with them all," Takeru said, surprising everyone. "If they won't give up, then its their funeral. I will not allow my friends or family to come to harm as long as I am capable of fighting back." There was a dark tone to the young warrior's voice, something not often heard. Everyone in the room knew that instant that the assassins had made a powerful enemy.  
  
Gatomon hopped up on the table. "I think right now, we should be worrying less about the Brotherhood and more about what these crests and eggs do. We should also concentrate on finding the next ones."  
  
"You're right Gatomon," Hikari said. "The prophecy said though, that to unlock the powers of the crests and the eggs, you would have to pass some kind of test. But those assassins were hardly a test."  
  
"Speak for yourself," Davis muttered under his breath.  
  
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Tai said. "For now, let's focus on getting the other crests and eggs. Then we'll find the missing digi-destined and get him his crest. Now," he said putting hind down on the table to signify that those words were final, "the prophecy said that the crests of Love and Sincerity are in the mountains just a day east of here. It seems that all we have to do is show up and whatever force is behind this will recognize us as digi-destined."  
  
"Otherwise we wouldn't have these crests now," Matt said.  
  
"Right, so let's plan our trip to the mountains and get Sora nad Mimi their crests."  
  
************************  
  
Tai was in the bedroom the elves had prepared for him, pacing back and forth as he was unable to sleep. He was desperately trying to sort things out and the whole thing was beginning to work his nerves. He stared at the oil lamp on the end table beside his bed and thought about the prophecy. Specifically, he was wondering what it meant by "lord of flames" when it described him. Tai stared at the small flickering light for what seemed like hours, but he just could not will it to change. The young lord sighed in defeat and sat down on his bed. "I guess I haven't gotten any kind of power through this crest. Yet. I wonder what the test is supposed to be? Obviously something demonstrating courage." Taichi raked a hand through his thick brown hair and lay back on his bed staring at the ceiling. "Father," he said at last. "I wish you could see us now. But I hope that wherever you are, you're able to rest in peace." The memory of losing his father was still fresh in the young knight's mind and it was with great difficulty that he finally managed to go to sleep.  
  
Sora knocked on the door and peaked in, seeing Tai fast asleep, but wearing a troubled expression on his face as he rested. She silently came in and looked over him. "Taichi," she said in a whisper, "you mean so much to me. You always treat me so well, you defend my honor and my well-being, you do so much to make me happy and ask for nothing in return." At this point the amazon's ruby eyes began welling with tears. "I don't know what's down the road, but I want to always be with you no matter what happens." Sora placed two fingers to her lips then moved them to Taichi's lips. She let her fingers stay on him longer than was necessary, but she didn't care. The amazon walked out of the room as quietly as she came, not noticing the faint traces of a smile forming on the young knight's lips.  
  
***********************  
  
Morning found the digi-destined and digimon outside the elven palace with Luusulis and Amrufel. The group was set for travel to find the crests of Love and Sincerity and were syaing their thank yous and goodbyes. "We truly appreciate your hospitality King Luusulis. May the years of Dulhai be everlasting," Tai said.  
  
"It was our pleasure," Luusulis insisted with a laugh, shaking his head slightly to emphasize his point, his long braid sweeping the ground form side to side.  
  
"If I may ask, where are you travelling to next? Perhaps I could guide you with hte King's permission," Amrufel offered. He had become rather fond of the group, having wanted to see the prophecy come true since he first heard it as a child from his parents.  
  
"To the Iron Mountains east of here," Takeru said.  
  
At this, Amrufel frowned. "I'm afraid I have no desire to go there. Thirty years ago, a colony of dwarves began settling those mountains." Elves and dwarves had a rivalry between them that dated back further than either of the races remembered. In all honesty, neither of them could remember what they were arguing about in the first place, but were too stubborn to let it go.  
  
Yamato sighed in exasperation. "If that's the way you feel," he said tonelessly. He found the racial argument to be rather pointless if they couldn't even remember what started the whole thing. It annoyed him to lose a guide and an ally over a ridiculous dispute that began millennia ago and had wound down to petty squabbling.  
  
***********************  
  
Amrufel stayed behind while the others traveled to the Iron Pass. They reached it by nightfall the next day. Off in the mountains ahead, everyone saw a bright ornage glow. "That must be the dwarf colony," Davis said. Unfortunately, the young squire was half right. That was indeed the location of the dwarf colony the elves had spoken of, but the sight that greeted them when they reached the place at noon was hardly welcome.  
  
The houses, shops, and the forge were destroyed, smashed and ruined. Blood and arrows littered the ground with dozens of corpses of the unfortunate dwarves that had inhabited this settlement. It was a grim reminder of the ghoul attack from the other day. Izzy lowered his head in silent respect and many of the others followed his example.  
  
Takeru didn't lower his head, though. He instead walked into the ruined settlement and surveyed the damage. He inspected every broken weapon, bootprint, and piece of rubble with incredible scrutiny. Finally, he walked to one of the dwarven corpses. He traced a finger along a gash in the dwarf's back and found the blood was still fresh. Tentatively, he drew his finger up to his mouth and flicked his tongue over the blood coating his skin. Takeru immediately spit it back out and his face paled. He hung his head and put his hands in a prayer position.  
  
"TK," Kari asked. "What's wrong? What happened here?"  
  
The blonde lord stood up at last, though the color still hadn't returned to his face. "I'm afraid this is worse than ghouls. Only one race uses this kind of poison on their blades. This attack was made by," at this time, Takeru swallowed as if choking on the words that would finish his sentence. "The attack was made by dark elves."  
  
A heavy silence came upon those two words. Everyone knew of the drow people. A wicked subrace of elves who lived in the underground network of tunnels and caverns people had come to call the Underworld. Dark elves rarely sent troops to the surface, but when they did, it was the stuff nightmares were made of. Whoever the drow didn't kill, they took for slaves. Only one person ever escaped the Underworld with his life, but the horrors he had seen he spoke of only in his raving fits and nightmares, for the poor man was driven insane by his experiences.  
  
"Perhaps it was better that Amrufel didn't come after all," Biyomon said. "Seeing the aftermath of a drow attack would really hurt him."  
  
Everyone nodded in agreement. It was a known fact that the surface elves hated hteir subterranean cousins with a passion unlike any other, and vice versa.  
  
"The least we can do," Tai asid at last, "is give these poor dwarves a decent funeral. Let's start gathering wood for the pyre." It was dwarven custom to send souls to the afterlife by burning the body on a pyre to return it to the earth.  
  
Matt shook his head slowly. "Look at this massacre. This is just wrong."  
  
Gabumon began gathering the bodies into one area and looked at Yamato. "I know, but right now all we can do is send their spirits to the next life."  
  
Everyone nodded and set to work. It was very unpleasant and grizzly, but it had to be done. Everyone felt deeply disturbed by the way some of the poor dwarves had died exceptionally violent and cruel deaths. One had his feet and hands amputated at ankles and wrists then had his ribs crushed, presumably one at a time. Another was completely skinned. Yet another had his face and scalp torn off. Drow enjoyed keeping macabre trophies, so there was not much speculation about what happened to the missing flesh and pieces.  
  
By nightfall the pyre was set. Augumon puffed a small fireball into the base, and soon the stack of wood and bodies became a giant bonfire. Everyone kneeled and lowered their heads in respect and prayer. Cody and Armadillomon wiped several tears from their eyes, trying to stay silent.  
  
Tai, who was next to Cody, saw the young boy's upset face and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. Iori had never seen a massacre before, and the disturbing encounter here had probably scarred the boy. "It's alright," Taichi said in a whisper. "It's over now. Once we find the crests, we can leave this behind as nothing more than a memory."  
  
*************************  
  
What the young knight couldn't have known, was that it was not over. A shadowy figure with blue-black skin, long ghostly white hair, and smoldering red eyes like two dying coals watched them in secrecy, shielding his eyes from the light of the pyre. He retreated from the ruins without a sound, smiling evilly as he knew there would be more kills that night.  
  
End of Chapter 6  
  
  
The suspense is killing me. In Legacy of Digita Chapter 7- City of Nightmares, the digi-destined are kidnapped by dark elves and taken as prisoners to their subterranean city. What will happen when Taichi, Daisuke, and Takeru are forced to compete in the dark elves' gladiatorial games? What will become of Angemon when he attempts to rescue his friends? And is it possible that from the horrifying experience, the digi-destined find two crests that they weren't expecting? Find out. 


	7. City of Nightmares

LEGACY OF DIGITA  
  
Author's Notes: Last chapter left us with a little suspense. Now we're going to find out what's going to happen and find a few surprises, too. Some of you are probably thinking that I got dark elves from Dungeons & Dragons. That's half-right. I see dark elves all over the place in fantasy now, and since they are one of my favorite evil races, I'm putting them in this story.  
  
Chapter 7- City of Nightmares  
  
Taichi sat quietly in front of the dying remains of the pyre. The whole thing had burned down quickly and now everyone was asleep, leaving Tai and Augumon to keep watch. The young knight kept suspiciously glancing around with an air of paranoia.  
  
"What's wrong, Tai?" Augumon looked at his partner concernedly. The place was very unsettling, but Taichi was acting just a little too cautious, it seemed.  
  
"I think we're being watched," the knight said in a whisper.  
  
"What makes you think that?"  
  
As if cued, over three dozen tall figures with the same blue black skin, bone white hair, and smoldering red eyes emerged from the shadows armed with swords, daggers, naginatas, spears, quarterstaffs, and an assortment of other unpleasant weapons. They were all grinning evilly as they surrounded Taichi, Augumon, and the sleeping digimon and digi-destined.  
  
"Call it a hunch," the brown-haired lord said flatly. He leaped to his feet and drew his sword, letting out a battlecry to wake the others.  
  
Unfortunately, it was too late. The dark elves moved in and beat everyone down into submission before they could fight back. Tai made sure, however, that their victory wasn't flawless. Just as he was being carried off with his arms held by a drow behind his back, he used the elf for a support, lifting his legs up and thrusting them out into the chest of another drow who was sent staggering back into his comarade's spear.  
  
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The group was lead in single file, bound by black ropes, with the drow leading them toward a cave. They all stumbled blindly around until Hikari spoke a silent incantation to grant them all the dark vision the drow possessed. The cave was nothing like the one the crests of Courage and Friendship were hidden in. There was a mysterious atmosphere, but it was out of sheer malevolence. Various beetles and spiders skittered across the ground, causing those with sandals to flinch and try to avoid the creatures without upsetting the others' balance. Cold water dripped from above into stagnant black pools filled with sightless fish or running streams with bizarre insects and crustaceans scuttling through the waters. The air got warmer as they went further down, but felt cooler as they passed an underground lake. Everyone saw the large black sillhouette moving underneath the surface, but no one had any desire to find out what it was.  
  
After what felt like an eternity of walking, they came to a place dimly lit with phosphorescent moss that grew at certain places on the cavern walls. The stalagtites and stalagmites here were massive, bigger than a land owner's mansion, connected by stone bridges. Small holes from which faint light came through covered the rock extensions. There was a great circular theater in the center with a pit of blood-stained sand. Graffiti of dark and gruesome images was everywhere. A massive church of pure obsidian stood tall from the floor of the cavern to the roof, malevolent sounds and songs descending down its stepps and filling the caverns and tunnels. Dark elves came and went in throngs through this dark place, some of them dragging slaves of all different races. The group had reached the drow city. It was a nightmarish sight as they were all led across stone bridges to the biggest stalagtite of all and brought inside.  
  
The inside was no more amiable than the outside. The walls were smooth and reflective, like obsidian mirrors. Engravings and tapestries of the most horrific images lined these walls and great spidershaped mobiles hung from the ceilings, as if ready to pounce on anything that got underneath them. The ceiling itself was covered in spider's webs, artificial ones made from materials one can only guess at. Finally, they were all shoved into a large hall with great stone columns at the sides and two twisted, hideous thrones. Seated on these thrones were the drow king and queen. They appeared more arrogant and regal than the other elves, with malicious smirks on their blue-black lips. "Well, well, well," the queen said. "What do we have here?"  
  
"My lord and lady," one of the drow guards said. He stepped forward and sheathed his scimitar. "We found these humans and digimon at the site of last night's massacre. Our scout thought some of them would make good slaves while the rest could be used for target practice, so we brought them to you for you to decide."  
  
"I refuse to be a slave to the likes of you," Davis shouted angrilly.  
  
"That goes for me too," Veemon added.  
  
The drow king laughed maniacally. "I don't think you have a choice." He surveyed the group with interest. "The tall one with brown hair and his little look-alike. And the young blonde one. I want these three to compete in tomorrow's games. You three are to become gladiators for my peoples' entertainment."  
  
Taichi was now furious. "Absolutely not," he shouted. His voice echoed throughout with the volume of a thunderclap. "I will not play such a disgusting game! I am a knight, not a murderer!"  
  
"It makes no difference what you are down here," the queen said. "In our world, you are a slave." She chuckled evilly and snapped her fingers, causing the guards to ready their weapons in attention. "Now, you will fight tomorrow along with the other two boys, or your friends all die now." With that the guards grinned wickedly and watched their prisoners with bloodlust in their eyes.  
  
"My wife raises a good argument. Now, are you ready to play in our games," the king asked arrogantly.  
  
It was at this time that Taichi did something ubelieveably bold. He let loose several of the only existing insults which could get a reaction from the otherwise perpetually calm dark elves. "You spider-kissing, ink-faced, cave-scratching, orcspawn!"  
  
That was all it took to have the king and queen seeing red. "Take them to the dungeons and throw them each in seperate cells," the queen shrieked.  
  
"If they complain, kill them," the king added. "Your death will be slow and painful you surface-dwelling slime," he growled at Tai.  
  
"I wasn't aware the drow knew any other kind of death," the young knight shot back. The guards were dragging Tai to his cell kicking and screaming the whole way.  
  
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The cells in the dungeon were damp, cold, and weren't furnished at all. Spiders and rats occasionally scuttled through, but Takeru was able to put up with it. He was more worried about everyone else than himself. If he didn't fight, they would die. But if he fought, he would undoubtedly be killing slaves who didn't deserve any of this. He would be no better than a murderer. At the same time, he couldn't allow himself to just die, or the prophecy would never be fulfilled. The mental anguish was almost unbearable.  
  
By morning, a dozen armed guards came to the blonde lord's cell escorting Taichi and Daisuke. Takeru was just glad that the drow had underestimated his older borther's ability as a fighter.  
  
However, TK wasn't the only one who had been troubled that night. Hikari couldn't stand this darkness. She couldn't quite explain it, but the sorceress felt that the darkness was all the more powerful without Takeru beside her. Hikari spent the whole night huddled in a corner, but refusing to cry, refusing to give her captors that kind of satisfaction.  
  
Meanwhile, Tai and Davis were going through the same moral dilemna as Takeru. Daisuke tried to rationalize each possible choice one way or another, but he couldn't think after a while and he fell into an uneasy sleep. Tai on the otehr hand, kept shouting the few obscenities and insults that could upset dark elves while staying conveniently out of reach of the guard's polearms.  
  
However, of all the humans and digimon, no one was more upset by all of this than poor Iori. The boy was too young to be exposed to such dark concepts and sights. He found it impossible to sleep with the disturbing images he had seen in the past twelve hours playing in his mind. He was greatly unnerved by the fact that one of his guards had a recently preserved dwarf scalp and face, no doubt from the recent massacre. How the drow could get their "trophies" so well-preserved so quickly was a process Cody had no desire to learn of.  
  
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Taichi, Daisuke, and Takeru were led out into the great theater in the center of the city and were forcefully tossed out into the bloodstained sand with their weapons thrown in shortly afterward. They still wore their armor and brought their blades to bear. That was when the throngs of drow patrons began cheering and shouting madly in anticipation of the coming bloodshed. The three warriors drew their blades in preparation. Soon, three drow warriors armed with scimitars came out into the arena. But they were not real warriors. They were scrawny and gaunt, almost emaciated. They had insane grins on their faces and their eyes burned maniacally. These dark elves were obviously slaves forced to compete in these games. "This is no battle," Tai said with no effort to conceal his contempt. "This is butchery. Look at them. They're ill, they're starved. I could fight all three of them at once and not even break a sweat."  
  
"This is just sick," Takeru hissed.  
  
"Like we have a choice," Daisuke said grimly. He raised his greatsword and got into a fighting stance. His friends soon followed his example, though with some reluctance.  
  
The drow warriors charged forward madly, foaming at the mouth as they screamed with maniacal rage.  
  
Takeru simply side-stepped the one going for him, holding one foot out and tripping him. The dark elf fell to the ground, impaling himself on his own sword.  
  
Daisuke jumped aside and swung his greatsword into his attacker's back, killing him instantly.  
  
Taichi simply held his longsword out once his opponent got too close and let the dark elf skewer himself as he ran straight into the blade.  
  
The crowd was upset. Though the scene was very bloody, it was too short for their liking. The surface-dwellers had won, each one felling his opponent in one strike. Hardly entertaining th the bloodthirsty drow.  
  
And so it continued for hours. Slaves of every race trying to win and all the three digi-destined could do was kill them quickly. The audience wasn't very happy with this. It was all too merciful and quick.  
  
Once the games were over, the three were thrown back in their cells and given mushrooms and some kind of fish with a glass of water for a meal. They knew the process was going to repeat itself again soon. Without contact to the other digi-destined, forming an escape plan seemed nigh impossible. For now, all they could do was play the sick games and pray for a miracle.  
  
*************************  
  
Patamon lay in his cell huddled in a corner. It had been nearly a week now since they were all taken to these dungeons. The winged digimon didn't know what to do, but he ate the poor meals he was given and stayed inactive as much as possible to conserve energy so he could digivolve if the need arose.  
  
His seperation from Takeru was almost unbearable. He felt like he had lost a part of himself. If he could get some idea of how to escape the Underworld, then he could just digivolve to Angemon and fight his way out with hte others. But that wasn't very realistic. Besides, with four guards around constantly, it was impossible to make any kind of plans except in one's mind.  
  
The dark elves were no fools. They really knew how to keep someone locked up well. Even the guards were situated on the wall facing the cell so they would never have their backs turned for even a minute. The situation was very bleak.  
  
*************************  
  
Day nine of imprisonment came around. The three digi-destined were once again standing out in the arena over their fallen opponents. In the past several days, they had been fighting real warriors. Now hte fights were actually challenging and often resulted in a number of minor wounds at least. Tai spit out a few drops of blood and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I can't take this much longer. This goes against everything I stand for."  
  
"Don't worry," Takeru said. "Something will happen and we'll get out of here." Even in these dismal conditions, the blonde lord had managed to retain hope. It was admirable how strong his faith and optimism could be.  
  
*************************  
  
Day eleven started and Hikari sat in her cell miserably. She couldn't stand this seperation. Takeru, Gatomon, Taichi, all of them pulled away from her. The way the guards looked at her mockingly was torture as they slid her meager breakfast in through a slot in the bars.  
  
The sorceress ate without objection, feeling lucky that the dark elves gave prisoners this much food to begin with. She dreamed of a daring escape and rescue, knowing the ideas she envisioned were ridiculous, but it kept her going.  
  
*************************  
  
It was now the fourteenth day of captivity, but the digi-destined clung to their hope of escape desperately. The only contact they had with each other was when Taichi, Daisuke, and Takeru were escorted down the halls to the arena. This day, however, they got a surprise. The guards stopped at Yamato's cell, gave him his sword and brigandine vest, and dragged him out with his brother and friends. Apparently, the dark elves wanted more competitors in their games.  
  
The four walked out into the arena stoicly. They all kept their faces emotionless, standing tall and defiant. It was then that the audience cheered as four drow stepped into the arena. However, these were not the usual gladiators and slaves the digi-destined had been fighting recently. These drow were more muscular than any other they had seen. They wore chain shirts of indigo metal and carried finely crafted counterparts of the weapons the digi-destined were holding. "Drow elite soldiers," Yamato said flatly. "Delightful."  
  
The soldiers rushed forward to meet their counterparts. The digi-destined knew this battle was different. They weren't fighting reluctant slaves, they were figthing unfeeling killers. They would have no problem fighting these elves.  
  
Tai parried an overhead slash and circled around for a stab to the stomach, which his opponent jumped back from. The two came in with opposed diagnol slashes and the blades met with a loud ring, each trying to out-match the other in strength. The warriors glared at each other with hatred and leaped back simultaneously, releasing their swords. Taichi went into a low sweep kick which the drow jumped over. Tai rose up with an upward sweep of his sword which managed a shallow cut in his opponent's side.  
  
Yamato was in a fencing match with his opponent and the two appeared evenly matched. They were moving so fast it was difficult ot tell what was happening and the audience was watching excitedly. Yamato suddenly made a jump snap kick, hitting his opponent in the jaw with a crack. He landed and ran off, with the angry dark elf in hot pursuit. The blonde bard ran up to a nearby wall and kept on going, running straight up the wall and using a back flip to land behind his opponent. Matt thrust his rapier towards his opponent's unguarded back, but the dark elf ducked and kicked back with both feet like a horse, using his hands for support. The blow connected with Yamato's chest, knocking him onto his back, but his brigandine vest softened the impact a little. Using what momentum he still had, the blonde bard rolled backward onto his feet but was immediately attacked by the dark elf. Matt managed to drop backward and kicked out, connecting with the incoming drow, and using the elf's momentum to throw him back, head first into the ground.  
  
Daisuke made two crossed horizontal slashes which his opponent dodged and swung his greatsword downward once the momentum from the last slash had brought the blade behind him. The overhead slash however missed as the drow side-stepped. He appeared to be struggling a little with his greatsword. Dark elves were not used to such heavy weapons, but they would adapt quickly. Davis brought his sword parallel with the ground with the point forward and thrust out at his opponent. This time, the strike impacted with a loud clash of metal on metal. The drow was sent backward and his chain shirt was ripped, revealing a breastplate of indigo metal underneath. The brown-haired squire shouted a short string of obscenities at this discovery and resumed his attack. He figured he could get the edge in the fight if he kept his dark elf opponent on the defense enough to distract him from adapting properly to his weapon. It was a simple strategy Taichi had taught him early in his training, and Daisuke was thankful to have that knowledge now.  
  
Takeru was going through the fight of his life. The drow warrior seemed to practice a style of combat nearly identical to the blonde lord's. He blocked a downward slash with his longsword and stopped his oppoent's shortsword from cutting his waist by using his own sword. TK then executed a butterfly kick, landing both strikes to the drow's head successfully. He stepped forward into a hook kick, catching his opponent in the hollow of the knee and sending him falling onto his back. TK then turned his blades point-down, raised them above his head, and made to impale his drow counterpart. But the dark elf rolled to the side just in time and leaped up, delivering a hard headbutt into TK's chest, knocking him backward. Takeru touched the ground for an instant before swinging his legs in a windmill maneuver and was lifted off the ground to his feet by the momentum, ending in a defensive stance, both blades ready.  
  
Taichi swung his sword down, hitting nothing but air. He turned the sword point-down in his hands and brought it back up, this time clashing with the drow's longsword. The brown-haired knight was quick to react, however, and delivered a powerful thrust kick into his opponent's ribs, causing him to stagger backward with his wind knocked out. Tai came in with two diagnol stabs, flowing in an X pattern. Both strikes hit and cut the drow's left arm and shoulder, making them all but useless. The dark elf retaliated with a hard stomp on Taichi's foot, distracting him for the instant needed for the drow soldier to put the tip of his sword through the knight's armored right shoulder. Tai cried out in pain, but felt lucky he had trained himself to become ambidextrous in combat. He switched his longsword to his left hand and slashed up, lopping off the drow's hand holding his sword at the wrist. The blade twisted painfully in Taichi's flesh but fell out soon.  
  
Yamato managed to make a few shallow cuts in his opponent's face by grabbing his swordarm and sweeping his rpaier over the drow's face. The dark elf gritted his teeth against the pain and flipped both feet up, striking Yamato smartly upside the head. With his balance off-set and his arm twisted by the dark elf's spin, the blonde bard was flipped over onto the ground with his opponent grabbing his wrist in turn. The drow tried to keep Yamato from escaping by keeping a vice-like grip on his arm and tried to skewer him, but Matt refused to hold still. He suddenly swung his legs up and wrapped his ankles around the drow's neck, flipping him forward and getting him to release his grip on the blonde bard's arm. Their fight was fast becoming less of a fencing match and more of a grappling fight that just happened to include swords.  
  
Daisuke managed to grab his counterpart by the throat and brought the pommel of his sword down hard into the drow's face, breaking his nose. He let go of the dark elf's neck and slammed the pommel down again, knocking his opponent flat into the sand of the arena floor. Daisuke jumped up with the greatsword lifted above his head. He came back down, his sword going with him ready to cut the dark elf soldier open, only to strike the ground as his counterpart rolled away into a crouch. Before his opponent could get a second wind, Davis took a huge step forward from his own crouch, lifting the sword up to slash the dark elf. But the drow reacted quickly and stepped on the blade. He spun on his heel and smacked Davis hard across the jaw with the flat side of his own elven blade.  
  
Takeru's opponent leaped above him, doing a half-twist in mid-air and landing behind the young lord. TK responded by pivoting and slashing down with his longsword in a great circular cut, which the drow successfully blocked. Instantly, TK followed up with another circular slash with both blades, managing to overwhelm the drow so that when Takeru came in for a third attack, his swords imbedded themselves in his counterpart's shoulder. The drow howled in pain, but reacted by swinging both sword's into TK's right side, cutting through his armor and striking vulnerable flesh. The young lord cried out and took several staggering steps backward, trying to clear his mind of the pain.  
  
Taichi thrust a powerful side kick into his counterpart's stomach. When the drow doubled over in pian, wrapping his arms around his solar plexus, Tai hit him with a hard uppercut using the last ouce of strength in his right hand. Before the drow could stagger, Taichi used his right hand once more to grab the dark elf's htroat and keep his face upward while the brown-haired lord fed his opponent his longsword. The young knight heard a satsifying gurgle from within the drow soldier's throat and he withdrew his blade, now dripping with blood, and let the body fall to the ground, blood flowing like a river from the now dead elf's still-gaping mouth.  
  
Yamato butterfly kicked his drow opponent in the sides and followed up with a slash aimed towards his counterpart's rapier. With a ring of metal on metal, Matt successfully disarmed his opponent. He threw a swing kick into his opponent's jaw, sending him staggering backward into the wall and Yamato lunged in before the dark elf could react, stabbing quickly and repeatedly with his rapier and soon puncturing at least a dozen holes in the soldier's torso which began to spout blood like a grotesque parody of a watering can.  
  
Takeru was being put on the defensive with each relentless strike his opponent made. It was then that TK found a weak point. The dark elf was striking mostly toward the upper half of the body, and his legs were practically forgotten for everything but stepping forward. As his counterpart made two crossed slashes, the young lord ducked below the blades, and swung his own swords into a scossors cut that tore open the drow soldier's legs. With a scream, he fell to the ground, and TK once more turned his blades point-down and thrust them downward, this time successfully impaling the drow through the stomach.  
  
The audience was practically orgasmic at the bloody spectacle before them. Their only regret was that it was the surface-dwellers who won. The kind and queen stood up and applauded. "Well done," the queen shouted from her balcony in the arena stnads. "We'll get you cleaned up and see how well you do against tougher opponents once you have your strength back."  
  
"No," Taichi said defiantly. The crowd fell silent and all eyes were upon the young knight. Tai sheathed his sword and put his left hand over his slowly bleeding shoulder. "I refuse to continue with your sick games."  
  
"How dare you," the queen shrieked.  
  
"I'm not afraid of you," the brown-haired knight said in return. "I don not fear torture or death. I fear nothing from you."  
  
The king and queen were now livid. No one had ever defied them like this.  
  
"You've lost one of your greatest weapons against me," Tai continued. "Fear."  
  
"Very well," the king said. He snapped his figners and several guards walked out of the arena. It wasn't long before an entire squadron of soldiers came in, escorting the remaining digi-destined and digimon. "As punishment for your defiance," the king barked, "all of you will compete in the games. If you successfully beat everything we send against you, then we will make you fight each other." With htis, the drow king grinned evilly and chuckled low in his throat.  
  
"Barbarians," Koushiro shouted angrilly.  
  
Patamon stood up on his hind legs. "No more," he squeaked. "This ends now! Patamon digivolve to..." A white light enveloped the little winged digimon and his body began to morph into a winged humanoid figure. "Angemon," the angel digimon shouted as the light faded, revealing his champion form. Angemon took to the air, twirling his staff. "Hand of Fate," he shouted, and blasted away a whole section of the arena, and dozens of drow with it. "Everyone," he shouted down to his friends, "get out now! I'll hold them off! Hand of Fate!" Angemon continued destroying the drow city.  
  
A dozen guards took out crossbows and fired at the champion digimon. Their bolts left only minor wounds in Angemon's body and he contronted them with his staff.  
  
It was then that a drow sorcerer emerged from the shadows, threw open his billowing black cloak, and launched a fireball of black flame at Angemon, successfully striking him.  
  
Angemon screamed in pain and fell forward on his face. His helm was cracked, nearly split open. Most of his long, blonde hair hand been burned away, along with the pure white feathers on his wings, which were now charred black and half destroyed. His skin was burned and bleeding, smoke rising off his body.  
  
"Angemon," Takeru Shouted. "No!" Tears were welling up in the blonde lord's eyes, but with the sorerer there he was powerless to help his bonded partner.  
  
Taichi was shaking with rage. "That's it," he said in a voice not his own. From underneath his doublet, a patch of fire burned a hole in the garment, revealing his crest of Courage, now glowing a bright orange and enveloped in fire. Taichi threw his head back and cried out as loud as his lungs would allow as blood red flames erupted from the ground and wreathed his body. The young knight's hair danced in the burning winds, seemingly unaffected by the aura of fire, like the rest of his body. The young lord opened his eyes to show they were glowing blood red, pupils merging with the rest of the eye. All eyes were on Taichi as he slowly turned his head to face the drow sorcerer who was now staring at him in shock. Tai raised his right arm, now completely healed, and launched a stream of orange fire from his palm right at the unfortunate dark elf, who was immersed in flames and burned down to a charred, brittle skeleton in seconds.  
  
The crowd's cheers of excitement became screams of fear. Dark elves began trampling each other trying to escape from the burning creature down on the arena floor. "What the hell is going on here," the queen shrieked.  
  
The digi-destined and digimon watched Tai with awe and fear. The brown-haired lord turned to Augumon and soon, the lizard digimon's eyes began to glow the same blood red. "Augumon digivolve to... Skullgreymon!" Everyone watched with horror as the little orange lizard became a massive skeletal dragon. "Dark Shot!" The powerful blast headed straight for the balcony where the drow king and queen were seated. They had just enough time to scream in terror before they knew no more.  
  
Taichi drew his sword. Instantly, the blade became wrapped in yellow and orange flames. A dark elf guard raced toward him, but Tai lazily batted his sword away. He made two crossed horizontal slashes, first destroying the guard's weapon, then amputating his arm above the elbow, the flaming sword burning the wound dry. He then brought the sword in and thrust it forward, impaling the drow soldier through the chest. A second later, the guard's body above the waist exploded in a shower of burning body aparts that had been cauterized by the heat of the young knight's blade.  
  
Another guard made to attack Taichi with a halberd, but the brown-haired lord just side-stepped and grabbed the soldier by the neck. The dark elf screamed wildly in pain before the flaems surrounding Tai's body burned away the unfortunate guard's flesh, leaving his smoldering skeleton to fall apart into a heap on the ground.  
  
The others were watching helplessly, petrified by the sight of the slaughter before them. Skullgreymon's Dark Shot attack was quickly decimating the arena and the surrounding city, while Taichi brutally killed every soldier who tried to stop him.  
  
A group of dark elves armed with crossbows fired on Taichi, but moved faster than sight and dodged their bolts. Enraged, the archers fired again, once more, hitting nothing but air. "Damn you," the leader shouted. "Hold still!" He fired another shot right at Taichi's chest, and the young knight did not dodge, but instead caught the bolt in his hand several inches from his ribs. The wooden missile burned to ashes in Tai's grip and he narrowed his glowing eyes at the archers. The flames surrounding his body leaped out and engulfed the dark elves, burning them to cinders in mere seconds.  
  
"Taichi," Hikari shouted pleadingly. "Please stop! This isn't the knight's code! This isn't you!" Tears were streaming down her face as she watched her brother continue his massacre.  
  
Takeru watched the whole scene with blurred vision through tears. "No, this isn't right. We can't give in to anger! We have to keep hope!"  
  
As if summoned by the two children's words, two flashes of white nad green light came speeding through the darkness of the caverns and rested on Hikari's and Takeru's chests respectively. The lights formed pendants bearing the runes of Light and Hope. The two had found their crests in this dark hour.  
  
Hikari and Gatomon became sheathed in white light and their eyes glowed golden, while Takeru and Angemon were surrounded in a bright green glow with dark green flashing eyes. Angemon, stood up, his wounds healed and he began to change with Gatomon.  
  
"Gatomon digivolve to... Angewomon!" Angewomon looked the same for the most part, but with the pure light surrounding her, the angel digimon looked more powerful than ever.  
  
"Angemon digivolve to... MagnaAngemon!" MagnaAngemon looked more regal than Angemon, and seemed to practically radiate divine power. He activated his glowing sword and turned to face Skullgreymon with Angewomon.  
  
Meanwhile, Hikari found two daggers of pure light held point-down in her hands. She was never good at fighting, but she knew how to use these weapons as if she had training and experience beyond her years.  
  
Takeru felt faster, stronger, and more skilled than ever before. His swords had also chnged. The hilts were made of mithril and jade, while the blades were transparent crystals, perfectly shapen and smooth as glass with edges sharper than razors.  
  
The sorceress and her betrothed turned to face Taichi as he cut a drow guard in two at the waist, his blade cauterizing the flesh instantly. They knew they had to work together to stop him. The young knight had unleashed the power of his crest, but the anger and hatred burning inside of him had been greatly magnified beyond his control. Somehow, the two dig-destined and the ultimate digimon were going to have to stop Taichi and Skullgreymon before their unbridled power was turned in the wrong direction.  
  
End of Chapter 7  
  
  
Cliffhanger. I can be really evil when I want to. :-)  
  
In Legacy of Digita Chpter 8- Exodus, the escape from the Underworld has begun, but will it carry a price? What is the full extent of the powers these crests can give and just how dangerous can they be? Find out in the next chapter. 


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